Zarina Hashmi (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.
Biography
Born Zarina Rashid on 16 July 1937 in Aligarh, British India to Sheikh Abdur Rashid, faculty at Aligarh Muslim University, and Fahmida Begum, a homemaker, Zarina earned a degree in mathematics, BS (honors) from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1958. She then studied variety of printmaking methods in Thailand, and at Atelier 17 studio in Paris, apprenticing to Stanley William Hayter, and with printmaker Tōshi Yoshida in Tokyo, Japan. She lived and worked in New York City.
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.
Zarina died in London from complications of Alzheimer’s disease on 25 April 2020.
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. 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.
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, exile. For example, 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.
Awards and Fellowships
- 2007: Residency, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia
- 2006: Residency, Montalvo Art Centre, Saratoga, California
- 2002: Residency, William College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
- 1994: Residency, Art-Omi, Omi, New York
- 1991: Residency, Womens Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York
- 1990: Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, New York foundation of the arts fellowship
- 1989: International Biennial of Prints, Bhopal, India (Grand Prize)
- 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
Solo Exhibitions
| Year | Name of Exhibition | Name of Gallery | Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Zarina Hashmi: Noor | Galerie Jaeger Bucher | Paris, France |
| Zarina Hashmi: Recent Works, Gallery | Gallery Espace | New Delhi, India | |
| Zarina Hashmi: Anamnesis, 1970-1989 | The Contemporary Art Gallery | Mumbai, India | |
| 2009 | The Ten Thousand Things | Luhring Augustine | New York, USA |
| 2007 | Zarina: Paper Houses | Gallery Espace | New Delhi, India |
| 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 |