Google Doodle today celebrates Zarina Hashmi’s 86th birthday, an influential Indian American artist. By incorporating her signature geometric and minimalist abstract shapes into the doodle, Tara Anand, a guest illustrator from New York, pays homage to Hashmi’s artistic style.
Media reports suggest that Hashmi was known for her architectural sculptures, prints, and drawings. Her works, aligned with the Minimalist movement, employed abstract and geometric forms to evoke a spiritual experience.
Born in 1937 in the small Indian town of Aligarh, Zarina Hashmi experienced a contented childhood alongside her four siblings.
In 1977, Zarina Hashmi made a significant move to New York City, where she emerged as a passionate advocate for women and female artists of colour.
She swiftly joined the Heresies Collective, a feminist journal dedicated to exploring the intersection of politics, art, and social justice.
Subsequently, Hashmi took on a professorial role at the New York Feminist Art Institute, an institution that aimed to provide equitable educational opportunities for women artists.
In 1980, she collaborated on co-curating an exhibition titled “Dialectics of Isolation:the United States” at A.I.R. Gallery.
This exhibition played a vital role in showcasing the artistic voices and perspectives of women artists from marginalized backgrounds.
Zarina Hashmi’s early artistic works, with their abstract and subtly geometric aesthetics, have drawn comparisons to renowned minimalists such as Sol LeWitt.
Her art continues to captivate viewers worldwide, as evidenced by its inclusion in permanent collections at esteemed institutions such as the San Francisco Museum.
Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, along with several other distinguished galleries.
These prestigious placements attest to the enduring appeal and significance of Hashmi’s artistic contributions.
