Zarina Hashmi

Zarina Hashmi (1937–2020), better known as Zarina, was a major Indian printmaker and paper sculptor whose austere, poetic works explored home, displacement, borders, memory, and migration. Born in Aligarh, she studied mathematics before training in printmaking in Bangkok, Paris, and Tokyo, experiences that helped shape her precise and meditative visual language.

Her work is marked by geometry, spare line, and a deep attention to materiality, often using maps, house forms, language, and fragmented architectural spaces to reflect a lifelong sense of movement and rupture. Partition and exile were central to her worldview, and her art transformed personal history into universal reflection.

Living for much of her life in New York, Zarina became internationally recognised for a practice that was minimal in form but profound in emotional and political resonance. She remains one of the most important voices in contemporary South Asian art.