Zarina (artist)

Zarina Hashmi (née Rashid; 16 July 1937 – 25 April 2020), known professionally as Zarina, was an Indian American artist and printmaker based in New York City. Her work spans drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. Associated with the minimalist movement, her work utilized abstract and geometric forms in order to evoke a spiritual reaction from the viewer.^[2]

Zarina
Born	Zarina Rashid[1] (1937-07-16)16 July 1937 Aligarh, United Provinces, British India
Died	25 April 2020(2020-04-25) (aged 82) London, England
Nationality	India United States
Education	Atelier 17
Website	zarina.work

Biography

Zarina Rashid was born on 16 July 1937^[1][3] in Aligarh, India, to Sheikh Abdur Rashid, faculty at Aligarh Muslim University, and Fahmida Begum, a homemaker. Zarina earned a degree in mathematics, BS (Honours) from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1958. She then studied a variety of printmaking methods in Thailand, and at Atelier 17 studio in Paris,^[4] apprenticing to Stanley William Hayter,^[5] and with printmaker Tōshi Yoshida in Tokyo, Japan.^[6] She lived and worked in New York City.^[7]

During the 1980s, Zarina served as a board member of the New York Feminist Art Institute and an instructor of papermaking workshops at the affiliated Women's Center for Learning. While on the editorial board of the feminist art journal Heresies, she contributed to the "Third World Women" issue.^[8]

Zarina died in London from complications of Alzheimer's disease on 25 April 2020.^[1][9][10]

On 16 July 2023, a Google Doodle inspired by Zarina's works was published to commemorate what would have been her 86th birthday.^[11]

Artistry

Zarina's art was informed by her identity as a Muslim-born Indian woman, as well as a lifetime spent traveling from place to place.^[12] She used visual elements from Islamic religious decoration, especially the regular geometry commonly found in Islamic architecture. The abstract and spare geometric style of her early works has been compared to that of minimalists such as Sol LeWitt.^[12]

Zarina's work explored the concept of home as a fluid, abstract space that transcends physicality or location. Her work often featured symbols that call to mind such ideas as movement, diaspora, and exile. For example, her woodblock print Paper Like Skin depicts a thin black line meandering upward across a white background, dividing the page from the bottom right corner to the top left corner. The line possesses a cartographic quality that, in its winding and angular division of the page, suggests a border between two places, or perhaps a topographical chart of a journey that is yet unfinished.^[13] For her Delhi series, she created a woodcut print based on an engraving of the city of Shajahanabad as it stood before the siege of 1857.^[14]

Awards and fellowships

• 2007: Residency, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
• 2006: Residency, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, California
• 2002: Residency, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
• 1994: Residency, Art-Omi, Omi, New York
• 1991: Residency, Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York
• 1990: Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation grant, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
• 1989: Grand Prize, International Biennial of Prints, Bhopal, India
• 1985: New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, New York
• 1984: Printmaking Workshop Fellowship, New York
• 1974: Japan Foundation Fellowship, Tokyo
• 1969: President's Award for Printmaking, India^[4]

Solo exhibitions

Year	Name of exhibition	Name of gallery	Place
2019–20	Zarina, A Life in Nine Lines	Kiran Nadar Museum of Art	New Delhi, India[15]
	Zarina: Atlas of Her World	Pulitzer Arts Foundation	St. Louis, USA[16]
2018	Zarina	Luhring Augustine	New York, USA[17]
	Zarina: Weaving Darkness and Silence	Gallery Espace	New Delhi, India[18]
2017–18	Zarina: Dark Roads	Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University	New York, USA[19]
2016	Life Lines	Gallerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger	Paris, France[20]
2014	Zarina: Descending Darkness	Luhring Augustine	New York, USA[21]
	Zarina: Folding House	Gallery Espace	New Delhi, India[22]
2012–13	Zarina: Paper like Skin	Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Centre	Los Angeles, USA[23]
		Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum	New York, USA[24]
		The Art Institute of Chicago	Chicago, USA
2011	Zarina Hashmi: Noor	Galerie Jaeger Bucher	Paris, France[25]
	Zarina Hashmi: Recent Works, Gallery	Gallery Espace	New Delhi, India[26]
	Zarina Hashmi: Anamnesis, 1970–1989	The Contemporary Art Gallery	Mumbai, India
2009	The Ten Thousand Things	Luhring Augustine	New York, USA
2007	Directions to My House	Shanghai Contemporary 07 Art Fair	Shanghai, China
	Zarina: Paper Houses	Gallery Espace	New Delhi, India[27]
	Weaving Memory 1990–2006	Bodhi Art	Singapore
2006	Zarina: Silent Soliloquy	Bodhi Art	Singapore
2005	Zarina Counting, 1977-2005	Bose Pacia	New York, USA
2004	Cities, Countries and Borders, Prints by Zarina	Gallery Chemould	Mumbai, India
		Gallery Espace	New Delhi, India
		Chawkandi Gallery	Karachi, Pakistan
		Gallery Rohtas 2	Lahore, Pakistan
2003	Maps, Homes and Itineraries	Gallery Lux	San Francisco, USA
2002	Home is a Foreign Place	Korn Gallery, Drew University	Madison, New Jersey
2001	Zarina, Mapping a Life, 1991–2001	Mills College Art Museum	Oakland, USA
2000	Home is a Foreign Place, Admit One	Gallery Espace	New York, USA
		Chawkandi Gallery	Karachi, Pakistan
1994	Homes I Made	Faculty Gallery	University of California, Santa Cruz
1993		Chawkandi Gallery	Karachi, Pakistan
1992	House with Four Walls	Bronx Museum of the Arts	New York, USA
1990	Zarina: Recent Work; Bronze, Cast Paper, Etchings	Roberta English Gallery	San Francisco, USA
1985	Zarina Hashmi: Paper Works	Art Heritage	New Delhi, India
		Chitrakoot Gallery	Calcutta, India
		Gallery Cymrosa	Bombay, India
		Chawkandi Gallery	Karachi, Pakistan
1983		Satori Gallery	San Francisco, USA
1981	Zarina: Cast Paper Works	Hebert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University	Ithaca, New York, USA
	Zarina: Recent Cast Paper Works	Orion Editions	New York, USA
1977		Gallery Alana	Oslo, Norway
1976		India Ink Gallery	Los Angeles, USA
1974	Zarina: Screenprints, Tapestries	Triveni Kala Sangam	New Delhi, India
	Serigraphs by Zarina	India Ink Gallery	Los Angeles, USA
1973	Zarina: Woodprints	India Ink Gallery	Los Angeles, USA
1972		Chanakya Gallery	New Delhi, India
		Gallery F-15, Jeløya	Moss, Norway
1971		Chanakya Gallery	New Delhi, India
		Cultural Centre Ora	Athens, Greece
1970	Graphics by Zarina	Pundole Art Gallery	Bombay, India
1969		Gallery Chanakya	New Delhi, India
1968		Kunika-Chemould Art Centre	New Delhi, India[4]

Selected exhibitions

Zarina was one of four artists/artist-groups to represent India in its first entry at the Venice Biennale in 2011.^[28]

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles organized the first retrospective of her work in 2012.^[29] Entitled Zarina: Paper Like Skin, the exhibition traveled to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago.^[30]

During the 2017–18 academic year, Zarina was the Artist-in-Residence at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.^[31] The residency culminated in a solo exhibition, Zarina: Dark Roads (6 October 2017 – 2 February 2018)^[32] and a publication, Directions to My House.^[33]

Examples of her work are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art,^[34] the Whitney Museum of American Art,^[35] the Menil Collection,^[36] the National Gallery of Art,^[37] and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.^[29][38]

References

1. Cotter, Holland (5 May 2020). "Zarina Hashmi, Artist of a World in Search of Home, Dies at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
2. "Zarina: Paper Like Skin". Art Institute of Chicago. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
3. Great Women Artists. Phaidon Press. 2019. p. 443. ISBN 978-0714878775.
4. Presenti, Allegra (2012). Zarina Paper Like Skin. Hammer Museum, California: Hammer Museum and DelMonico Books. pp. 182–183. ISBN 978-3-7913-5166-7.
5. Ollman, Leah (2 February 2013). "Zarina Hashmi". Art in America. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
6. "Artist Bio: Zarina Hashmi". Gallery Espace. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
7. "Zarina Hashmi". Gallery Espace. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
8. "Third World Women: The Politics of Being Other" (PDF). Heresies Collective. 1979. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
9. "Artist Zarina Hashmi dies at 83". Scroll.in. 26 April 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
10. "Artist Zarina Hashmi passes away in London". Hindustan Times. 26 April 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
11. "Zarina Hashmi's 86th Birthday". www.google.com. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
12. Butler, Cornelia (2007). Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution. MIT Press. p. 320.
13. "Zarina: Paper Like Skin". Guggenheim. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
14. Nambiar, Sridevi (16 September 2021). "Zarina Hashmi and the idea of home". Sarmaya Trust.
15. "Zarina – A Life in Nine Lines". Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. 3 March 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
16. "Zarina: Atlas of Her World". Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
17. "Zarina - - Exhibitions - Luhring Augustine". www.luhringaugustine.com. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
18. "Weaving darkness and silence". Gallery Espace. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
19. "Zarina: Dark Roads (October 6, 2017-February 2, 2018)". Asian/Pacific/American Institute | NYU. 22 August 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
20. "Life Lines". Jeanne Bucher Jaeger. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
21. "Zarina - Descending Darkness - Exhibitions - Luhring Augustine". www.luhringaugustine.com. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
22. "Folding House by Zarina". Gallery Espace. 14 May 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
23. "Zarina: Paper Like Skin | Hammer Museum". hammer.ucla.edu. 29 September 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
24. "Zarina: Paper Like Skin". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
25. "Noor". Jeanne Bucher Jaeger. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
26. "Zarina Hashmi-Recent Works". Gallery Espace. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
27. "Paper Houses by Zarina Hashmi". Gallery Espace. 7 July 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
28. "Pavilion of India". La Biennale. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
29. "Zarina: Paper Like Skin". Hammer Museum. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
30. "Artist Bio: Zarina Hashmi". Luhring Augustine. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
31. "Asian/Pacific/American Institute Announces Zarina Hashmi As Artist-in-Residence 2017–18". New York University. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
32. "Zarina Hashmi Dark Roads". ArtAsiaPacific. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
33. ""Directions to My House"--A Life Story through Words, Photographs, and Art". New York University. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
34. "Zarina | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
35. "Zarina". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
36. "Zarina, Indian, 1937 - 2020 - Untitled - The Menil Collection". The Menil Collection. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
37. Tylec, Laurie (15 April 2022). "Acquisition: Zarina". National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
38. "Zarina". Jeanne Bucher Jaeger. Retrieved 11 January 2020.

External links

• Zarina's website
• Images of Zarina's work at Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
• Gallery Espace, New Delhi, India
• Jeanne Jaeger Bucher, Paris, France