Recently, Google acknowledged the well-known Indian-American printmaker and artist Zarina Hashmi on her 86th birthday with an eye-catching doodle. The doodle, which was created by New York-based guest artist Tara Anand, honours Hashmi's distinctive aesthetic, which utilised geometric and minimalistic shapes to explore ideas of home, displacement, and memory.
Hashmi was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, on this day in 1937. He is one of the most important minimalist artists. She had a joyful upbringing with her four siblings until India's partition in 1947. Due to the partition, Zarina's family fled to Karachi, a newly created Pakistani city. When she was 21, Hashmi married a young diplomat and travelled the world. She studied printmaking, modernism, and abstraction in Bangkok, Paris, and Japan. In 1977, Hashmi relocated to New York and dedicated her life to campaigning for women and people of colour in the arts. She joined the feminist publication Heresies Collective, which examined the intricate relationship between politics, art, and social justice.
As part of her ongoing dedication to promoting equality in the arts, Hashmi started teaching at the New York Feminist Art Institute, giving female artists a place to succeed. She collaborated in the influential "Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States" show at A.I.R. Gallery in 1980. This historic occasion not only featured a wide range of artists but also gave female artists of colour a platform on which to openly express themselves.
Hashmi's artistic practise focused on woodcuts and intaglio prints, which she expertly combined with semi-abstract images of the homes and cities she had lived in. Her artwork frequently used Urdu inscriptions and geometric designs that drew inspiration from Islamic art.
The legacy of Zarina Hashmi continues to inspire fascination and reflection worldwide. Several prestigious institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, to name a few, have permanent collections that include her work.
The fact that today's Google doodle exists is proof of Zarina Hashmi's contributions to the art world's long-lasting influence. Doodles, brief updates to the Google logo on its homepages, have evolved into a way for the internet giant to commemorate important occasions and pay homage to illustrious public figures.
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