Google Doodle celebrates Zarina Hashmi: Meet the Indian-origin artist linked with minimalism

Zarina Hashmi was recognised for the use of abstract and geometric shapes in her artworks to explore the ideas about home, displacement, borders, and memory.

Zarina Hashmi, an Indian-American artist and printmaker, was widely known for her association with the minimalist movement. Hashmi was born in 1937 in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh on 16th July, which Google decided to honour with its doodle theme for the day.

Indian-American artists Zarina Hashmi.

The technology giant paid tribute to the artist's legacy on her 86th birthday on Sunday and shared a brief note describing Hashmi's life, works, and her contribution to the feminist movement.

Hashmi was recognised for her use of abstract and geometric shapes in her artwork to explore ideas about home, displacement, borders, and memory. "Zarina's family was displaced during the partition in 1947 and was forced to flee to Pakistan's Karachi after it," Google said.

Moved to New York in 1977

She married a young foreign service diplomat at the age of 21 and spent time in Bangkok, Paris, and Japan, where she became deeply involved in printmaking and artistic movements such as modernism and abstraction. "Hashmi moved to New York City in 1977 and became a strong advocate for women and artists of colour," the tech giant added. It also mentioned that she had the opportunity to join the 'Heresies Collective', a feminist publication that examined subjects from the lens of art, politics, and social justice.

Later, she also taught at the New York Feminist Art Institute. Among her prominent works, Hashmi co-curated an exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery called 'Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States' in 1980. "This groundbreaking exhibition showcased work from diverse artists and provided a space for female artists of colour," Google noted.

Hashmi is famous for her artworks of woodcuts and intaglio prints, combining semi-abstract images of houses and cities where she had lived. In 2020, she passed away, leaving a significant legacy that continues to be appreciated and pondered by the world.

Doodles are temporary alterations of the Google logo on its homepages to celebrate important events and notable public figures.