Zarina Hashmi, an Indian-American artist, Turns 86 Today! A Google Doodle

The focus of today’s Doodle is printer and Indian-American artist Zarina Hashmi, who is regarded as one of the key figures in the minimalist style. Guest illustrator Tara Anand from New York highlights Hashmi’s use of geometric and minimalist abstract forms to explore ideas of home, displacement, and boundaries in her illustrations.

Birth Anniversary Facts for Zarina Hashmi
On this day in 1937, Hashmi was born in the Indian village of Aligarh.
Before India was divided in 1947, she and her four siblings had a happy existence. Millions of people were forced to evacuate due to this awful occurrence, and Zarina’s family was compelled to go to Karachi in the newly founded Pakistan.
At age 21, Hashmi wed a young diplomat in the diplomatic service and set out to traverse the globe. She traveled to Bangkok, Paris, and Japan, where she was exposed to printing and modernist and abstract art trends.
In 1977, Hashmi relocated to New York City, where she developed into a fervent supporter of black and female artists. She quickly became a member of the Heresies Collective, a feminist journal that investigated the nexus between politics, art, and social justice.
She then became a professor at the New York Feminist Art Institute, which offered female artists equal educational chances. She collaborated in the exhibition’s co-curation in 1980 at A.I.R. Gallery, titled “Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States.” This ground-breaking exhibition included work from several artists and gave female artists of color a platform.
Hashmi, a proponent of minimalism art, rose to prominence for her arresting intaglio and woodcut prints that blend semi-abstract representations of the homes and locations she has lived in.
Inscriptions in her native Urdu and geometric designs influenced by Islamic art were often seen in her creations.
Hashmi’s works are still being looked at by people all over the globe since they are part of prestigious museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.