Today, on the auspicious day, Zarina Hashmi’s birthday Google pays tribute to her. The renowned Indian American artist would have been 86 years old on this day. Today’s Google Doodle pays tribute to Hashmi by using her signature geometric shapes and minimalist abstract shapes. Designed by guest illustrator, Tara Anand, from New York City, the doodle pays homage to her work.

Media reports indicate that Hashmi was renowned for her striking sculptures, reproductions, and drawings, which were in line with Minimalist principles. Her artworks utilized abstract and geometric shapes to create a deep spiritual sensation in the viewer.

She was an active participant for feminist rights. Hashmi moved to New York City in 1977, where she quickly became involved with the Heresy Collective, a progressive feminist magazine that focused on gender and social justice issues. She was a strong advocate for women’s rights and for the work of minority artists.

Hashmi then went on to become a professor at the Feminist Art Institute in New York City, an institution dedicated to providing equal educational opportunities for female artists.

In the 1980s, Hashmi co-curated an exhibition of Third World women artists of the United States, entitled “Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Women Artists from Third World Women Artist of the United States”, at the A.I. R. Gallery, which was a significant event in the history of art, as it provided a platform for the artistic expression of women artists from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Her Life

Zarina’s life and work are rooted in the city of Aligarh in India, where she was born. After graduating with a degree in mathematics, she studied woodblock printmaking in Bangkok and Tokyo. She also studied intaglio under S.W. Hayter at atelier-17, Paris.

Her early fascination with architecture and mathematics is evident in the way she uses geometry and emphasises the importance of structural purity in her work. Although her work is often characterised by minimalism, the starkness of her work is balanced by the texture and materiality of her work.

Her art is a reflection of her life, with recurring themes such as home, displacement, boundaries, journey, memory, etc.

Zarina has had a remarkable career, having lived and worked all over the globe. Raised in a loving and supportive family, she was a close relative of her late sister Rani. Throughout her career, she has exhibited her work at a variety of international galleries and institutions. Notably, in 2011, she was India’s representative at the 2011 Venetian Biennale, and in the following year, she held a retrospective exhibition, titled “Zarina: Paper like Skin”, at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum. Subsequently, her work was presented at other renowned museums, such as New York’s Guggenholz Museum and Chicago’s Art Institute of Art in 2013.

Zarina Is Best Known For

Zarina is best known for her work in printmaking, where she prefers to carve rather than draw the lines, rather than build up the surface of her work. She employs a variety of printmaking techniques, such as intaglio and woodblocks, as well as lithography, silkscreen and more. Additionally, she often creates a sequence of prints to reflect the variety of locations or ideas.

Zarina’s most renowned work, Home is a foreign place, is composed of thirty-six woodblock prints each imprinted with a specific memory of one’s home. Each print is further symbolic of the importance of language in Zarina’s work, as it pays tribute to her native tongue, which is in a state of decline.

In addition to her printmaking activities, Zarina pursues a variety of other artistic pursuits, including the production of works that involve the use of puncture, scratching, weaving and sewing techniques on paper. Additionally, Zarina specializes in the creation of sculptures utilizing a range of media, including bronze, aluminium and steel, as well as wood, tin and paper pulp.