Zarina Hashmi, a renowned Indian American artist noted for her minimalist abstract designs, celebrates her 86th birthday with a Google Doodle.
Zarina Hashmi, an outstanding Indian American artist who would have turned 86 today, is honored with a Google Doodle today. The doodle, created by New York-based guest illustrator Tara Anand, pays tribute to Hashmi’s creative approach by merging her characteristic geometric and minimalist abstract elements.
According to media accounts, Hashmi was noted for her exceptional sculptures, prints, and drawings. Her Minimalist-inspired artwork masterfully combined abstract and geometric elements to generate a profound spiritual experience in the viewer.
Zarina Hashmi, born in 1937 in the small Indian town of Aligarh, had a happy childhood with her four siblings until India was partitioned. Zarina, her family, and many others were compelled to transfer to Karachi, Pakistan’s newly founded capital.
Hashmi married a young diplomat at the age of 21, beginning a voyage that would take her throughout the world. She got the chance to explore the realms of printing and immerse herself in the influences of modernist and abstract art movements during her trips to Bangkok, Paris, and Japan.
Zarina Hashmi relocated to New York City in 1977, where she became a vocal champion for women and female artists of color. She quickly became a member of the Heresies Collective, a feminist publication committed to the convergence of politics, art, and social justice.
Hashmi later became a lecturer at the New York Feminist Art Institute, an organization dedicated to providing equal educational opportunities for women artists. She co-curated a solo show titled “Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States” at A.I.R. Gallery in 1980. This exhibition was critical in highlighting the artistic voices and viewpoints of women artists from underrepresented backgrounds.
Hashmi rose to prominence via her intriguing intaglio and woodcut prints, which effectively blended semi-abstract pictures of the houses and locations she had lived in throughout her life.
Her status as an Indian lady born into the Muslim faith, along with her childhood experiences of continual mobility, inspired her creative expression tremendously. Notably, Hashmi’s artwork frequently used graphic elements influenced by Islamic religious decorations, with exact mathematical patterns that retained enormous aesthetic appeal.
Zarina Hashmi’s early creative works have been compared to prominent minimalists such as Sol LeWitt due to their abstract and slightly geometric aesthetics.
Her work continues to captivate audiences around the world, as evidenced by its inclusion in permanent collections at prestigious institutions such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.
These high positions reflect Hashmi’s creative contributions’ continuing popularity and relevance.
