In her complete oeuvre that stemmed from her lived experiences in Aligarh, Bangkok, Paris, New York and London, artist Zarina Hashmi constantly questioned the idea of home and belonging.
Her abstract geometric collages, floorplans and maps in printmaking techniques (largely in intaglio, lithography, silkscreen and woodblock), handmade paper and sculpture, and often accompanied with Urdu calligraphy, reflect her Islamic roots, formal degree in mathematics, an interest in architecture, ponderings over rigid geo-political boundaries and tragic memories of the 1947 Partition. The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Hammer Museum Guggenheim Museum in New York...have featured her works in their public collections.
On April 25, the Indian-born American artist passed away at age 83 in London after a prolonged illness.
Poet and culture theorist Ranjit Hoskote, who curated ‘Everyone Agrees: It’s About to Explode’ – India’s first national pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2011) – in which he displayed Hashmi’s prints, was among the first ones to tweet of her demise. “Heartbroken to hear that Zarina Hashmi has passed away in London. She was magnificent: full of wit and shrewd wisdom, her work imbued with a tragic vision…” he wrote, and proceeded to tweet snapshots of her prints being installed and the final display at the 2011 edition.
In fact, a major retrospective ‘Zarina: A Life in Nine Lines’ at The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi that opened on January 30 during the annual India Art Fair was ongoing till the nationwide lockdown commenced. But Kiran Nadar, Founder-Chairperson of KNMA, is determined the show must go on. “We will be showcasing this show on our virtual platforms for everyone to enjoy. It is quite a coincidence that we are having her show at this time, and we lost her at this moment. It’s a huge loss to the art world.” Nadar remembers meeting Zarina a few times, when she first acquired her work some years ago. “Zarina was much more active and younger at that time. Over the years whenever she came to India, I would get an opportunity to interact with her. Zarina’s art is very subliminal, very basic at one level. She deals with lines and distance that she has abstracted in many ways. When you see her work, it looks emotional.”
For Renu Modi, Founder-Director of Gallery Espace, Hashmi was a dear friend of the gallery. “The passing of Zarina is a deep personal loss. She was a friend as well as an artist Gallery Espace represented. She was a very special person, exceedingly compassionate and lived her life gracefully, on her own terms.”