Flying for truth – celebrating the life of Zarina Hashmi
The website article celebrates Zarina Hashmi, an Indian-American artist and printmaker, on her 86th birthday. The Google Doodle created in honor of Zarina Hashmi showcases her minimalist style and explores her use of geometric and abstract shapes to convey ideas of home, displacement, and borders. Born in Aligarh, India, in 1937, Zarina Hashmi and her family were forced to move to Karachi, Pakistan, during the partition.
Throughout her life, Zarina traveled extensively, residing in places like Bangkok, Paris, and Japan, where she was exposed to printmaking and modernist art trends. In 1977, she settled in New York City and became an advocate for women and female artists of color. She joined the Heresies Collective, a feminist journal examining the intersection of politics, art, and social justice. Zarina also taught at the New York Feminist Art Institute, emphasizing equal educational opportunities for female artists.
Her artwork gained recognition for its intaglio and woodcut prints, featuring semi-abstract representations of the houses and cities she had lived in. Zarina’s art was influenced by her identity as an Indian Muslim woman and her nomadic childhood. She incorporated elements of Islamic religious decoration, showcasing regular geometry. Her early works reflected an abstract and understated geometric aesthetic, comparable to minimalist artists like Sol LeWitt.
Zarina Hashmi’s art continues to be admired globally, with permanent collections at esteemed galleries 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. Sadly, she passed away in London on April 25, 2020, due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
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