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{{Short description|Indian artist (1937–1990)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Undisclosed paid|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Nasreen Mohamedi
| image = Photo of Nasreen Mohamedi.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| other_names =
| birth_date = {{Birth date text|1937}}
| birth_place = [[Karachi]], British India (now in Pakistan)
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1990|1937}}
| death_place = Kihim, India
| education = St.Martins School of Art, London, UK
| field = Painting, Photography, Collage
| training =
| movement = Abstract Expressionism
| works =
| patrons =
| awards =
| spouse =
| partner =
| website =
}}
'''Nasreen Mohamedi''' (1937–1990) was an Indian artist best known for her line-based drawings, and is today considered one of the most essential modern artists from India. Despite being relatively unknown outside of her native country during her lifetime, Mohamedi's work has been the subject of remarkable revitalisation in international critical circles and has received popular acclaim over the last decade. Her work has been exhibited at the [[Museum of Modern Art|Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)]] in New York, the [[Kiran Nadar Museum of Art]] in New Delhi, [[documenta]] in [[Kassel]], Germany, and at Talwar Gallery, which organised the first solo exhibition of her work outside of India in 2003, Today, Mohamedi is considered one of the major figures of the art of the twentieth century. Mohamedi is a member of the [[Tyabji family]].

== Life and career ==

Born in 1937 in [[Karachi]],<ref name="AWARE">{{cite web |title=Nasreen Mohamedi |url=https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/nasreen-mohamedi/ |website=AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes |access-date=22 April 2023}}</ref> India, in what became western Pakistan some ten years after her birth, Mohamedi lived, even from her early years, a cosmopolitan life.<ref>[http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/nasreen_mohamedi/ Frieze, ''Nasreen Mohamedi''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401041542/http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/nasreen_mohamedi/ |date=1 April 2012 }}, November–December 2009.</ref> She was born into the elite [[Tyabji family]], a [[Suleymani Bohra]] family<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www3.metmuseum.org/blogs/ruminations/2016/nasreen-mohamedi|title=Of Calligraphic Lines and Radiant Light: Nasreen Mohamedi and Islamic Aesthetics|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|accessdate=5 May 2023|archive-date=4 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504094938/https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/ruminations/2016/nasreen-mohamedi|url-status=live}}</ref> She was one of eight children. Her mother died when she was very young. Her father owned a photographic equipment shop in Bahrain, among other business ventures.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/a-life-on-the-lines-celebrating-three-decades-of-nasreen-mohamedis-work/|title=A life on the lines: Celebrating three decades of Nasreen Mohamedi's work|date=2015-11-22|work=The Indian Express|access-date=2018-03-03|language=en-US|archive-date=29 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529001201/http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/a-life-on-the-lines-celebrating-three-decades-of-nasreen-mohamedis-work/|url-status=live}}</ref> Her family moved to [[Mumbai]] in 1944, and later Mohamedi attended [[Central St. Martin's|St. Martin's School of the Arts]], in London, from 1954 to 1957.<ref>Anders Kreuger, "Making the Maximum Out of the Minimum," ''Afterall'', Summer 2009.</ref> After living briefly with her family in Bahrain, Mohamedi studied on a scholarship in Paris from 1961 to 1963, where she also worked at a printmaking atelier,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tsjeng|first=Zing|title=Forgotten Women, The Artists|publisher=An Hachette UK Company|year=2018|isbn=978-1-78840-063-3|location=Great Britain|pages=26}}</ref> and on her return to India, joined the [[Bhulabhai Desai Institute]] for the Arts in Mumbai. Here she met other artists working at the time, including [[Vasudeo S. Gaitonde|V.S. Gaitonde]], [[M.F. Husain]] and [[Tyeb Mehta]]. Sometime after she joined the Bhulabhai Desai Institute, her first solo exhibition was hosted at Gallery 59. It was in Mumbai where she met abstractionist Jeram Patel, who went on to become her friend and colleague, while Gaitonde served as her mentor.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="SusetteMin">Susette Min, "Fugitive Time: Nasreen Mohamedi's Drawings and Photographs,” ''Lines among Lines'', Drawing Papers 52, New York: The Drawing Center, 2005.</ref><ref name="Klauss Kertess 2009">Klauss Kertess, "A Detached Joy: The Drawings of Nasreen Mohamedi," ''Art on Paper'' 13.5, May/June 2009.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.talwargallery.com/artists/nasreen-mohamedi#tab:slideshow|title=Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery|website=www.talwargallery.com|accessdate=5 May 2023|archive-date=2 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602112808/https://www.talwargallery.com/artists/nasreen-mohamedi#tab:slideshow|url-status=live}}</ref>

She settled in [[Baroda]] in 1972, where she taught Fine Art at [[Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda|Maharaja Sayajirao University]], and would continue teaching until her death in 1990. She also travelled abroad extensively, spending time in Kuwait, Bahrain, Japan, the United States of America, Turkey, and Iran over the course of her life.<ref name="SusetteMin" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Times |first=The New York |date=2008-10-31 |title=Art in Review |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/arts/design/31gall.html |access-date=2026-04-15 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":1">Zehra Jumbahoy, "The line of control," ''Mint'', 2 February 2013.</ref> Travel provided an essential source of inspiration for Mohamedi, who photographed and kept diaries throughout her life. Not only was she influenced by the deserts, Islamic architecture, and Zen aesthetics that she was exposed to during her travels, but, as Susette Min notes, "Mohamedi was deeply and intensely aware, as indicated in her photographs and journal entries, of herself and her body moving in time."<ref name="SusetteMin" /> During the last decade of her life, Mohamedi's motor functions gradually deteriorated due to [[Huntington's disease|Huntington's Chorea]]; she was able, however, to retain control of her drawing hand, and continued to create until her death in 1990 in Kihim, India at age at age 53.<ref name="GeetaKapur"/><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Museum of Art|first=Kiran Nadar|date=2016|title=Nasreen Mohamedi, Himmat Shah, Jeram Patel|journal=Three Retrospectives (2013-2016)}}</ref><ref name="AWARE"/>

== Influences ==

In the West, Mohamedi is most often associated with [[Agnes Martin]], with whom she was paired at the 2007 [[documenta]] in [[Kassel]], Germany.<ref>Marta Kuzma, "Best of 2007," ''Artforum'', December 2007.</ref> However, Mohamedi was not aware of the American artist and her paintings until late in her life.<ref name="GeetaKapur">{{Cite web|url=https://www.talwargallery.com/books-shop/nasreen-mohamedi#tab:slideshow|title=NASREEN MOHAMEDI - Books & Shop - Talwar Gallery|website=www.talwargallery.com|accessdate=5 May 2023|archive-date=22 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222183851/https://www.talwargallery.com/books-shop/nasreen-mohamedi#tab:slideshow|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Vasudeo S. Gaitonde|V.S. Gaitonde]] and [[Tyeb Mehta]] were Mohamedi's mentors in the 1960s.<ref name="GeetaKapur" /> Despite working at a time when the tendency was toward figurative or representational work, Mohamedi developed her own style.<ref name="Klauss Kertess 2009" />

In her diaries, Mohamedi makes reference to [[Kasimir Malevich]] and [[Wassily Kandinsky]], both of whom she admired and claimed as influences on her work.<ref name=":2">Kapur, "Elegy."</ref> In 1970, at what [[Geeta Kapur|Kapur]] names as a critical point in her career, Mohamedi wrote in her diary, "Again I am reassured by Kandinsky – the need to take from an outer environment and bring it an inner necessity."<ref>''Diaries'', 1980, p. 97, as quoted in Kapur, "Elegy," 12.</ref><ref name=":3" />

Mohamedi is often associated with the [[minimalism|American minimalism]] of the 1960s and 1970s and likened to artists such as [[Carl Andre]], [[Ad Reinhardt]], [[Barnett Newman]], [[Mark Rothko]], [[Richard Tuttle]], and [[John Cage]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Susan |date=2009-02-24 |title=Nasreen Mohamedi |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/nasreen-mohamedi-60238/ |access-date=2026-04-15 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Eva Hesse]] has also been comparative example to Mohamedi, especially her role as a teacher and mentor.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cotter |first=Holland |date=2003-10-10 |title=ART IN REVIEW; Nasreen Mohamedi |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/10/arts/art-in-review-nasreen-mohamedi.html |access-date=2026-04-15 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Mohamedi's travel also had an influence on her work. The emotive aspect of her work has been cited as influenced by [[Sufi]], while her combination of geometry and [[Arabesque]] line is often traced to an exposure to [[Islamic art|Islamic design]], especially the [[Islamic architecture|architecture]] of Iran, Turkey, and [[Rajasthan]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Clark |first=Robert |date=2009-09-18 |title=Exhibition preview: Nasreen Mohamedi, Milton Keynes |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/sep/19/nasreen-mohamedi-milton-keynes-gallery |access-date=2026-04-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

== Work ==

Mohamedi's work defies categorisation; the result of a disciplined and sustained effort to craft an individual formal vocabulary, it remains without parallel, the product and artefact of Mohamedi's distinctive personality, process, and aesthetic values. In some of her early work, one can see attempts to capture the human form. She explored various mediums such as sketches, canvas based watercolour and oils to pencil and graphite. Her preferred medium of work was pencil and paper. She drew delicate but deliberate lines. She experimented with grid like formations and varying gradations at acute angles. What stood out in her works was her perception of light and shade.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2016/nasreen-mohamedi|title=Nasreen Mohamedi {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art|website=www.metmuseum.org|date=16 November 2015|access-date=2018-03-03|archive-date=4 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304054656/https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2016/nasreen-mohamedi|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Although it is often difficult to temporally locate her work – she often left pieces untitled and undated – many critics have segmented her oeuvre into three general periods: an early period of sketches and semi-representational collage in the 1950s to mid-1960s, a "classic" period of increasingly non-representational forms, including her signature grid-based drawings, and a mature style in pen and ink.<ref name=":1" />
Although her work, especially the mature drawings of the 1970s and 1980s, is disciplined, even austere, it remains highly rhythmic – releasing the energy and movement of natural phenomena through line. The grid that so often provides a spatial environment for her drawings is less a limitation than a framework for her compositions, allowing, in the words of Deepak Talwar, the “poetry within structure” to emerge.<ref name="GeetaKapur"/>

Mohamedi's work can be found in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), New York, NY;<ref name ="The Metropolitan Museum of Art">{{cite web|title=Nasreen Mohamedi|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=nasreen+mohamedi|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|access-date=2023-06-28}}</ref> the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY;<ref name="Museum of Modern Art">{{cite web |title=Nasreen Mohamedi |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/31784 |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=2023-04-22}}</ref> the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL;<ref name="The Art Institute of Chicago">{{cite web|title=Nasreen Mohamedi|url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/239771/untitled|website=Art Institute of Chicago|access-date=2023-06-28|archive-date=31 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240831131026/https://www.artic.edu/artworks/239771/untitled|url-status=live}}</ref> Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India;<ref name="Kiran Nadar Museum of Art">{{cite web|title=Nasreen Mohamedi|url=https://www.knma.in/vignettes-collection|website=Kiran Nadar Museum of Art|date=21 February 2017|access-date=2023-06-28|archive-date=30 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330113320/https://www.knma.in/vignettes-collection|url-status=live}}</ref> and Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia.<ref name="Queensland Art Gallery">{{cite web|title=Nasreen Mohamedi|url=https://collection.qagoma.qld.gov.au/creators/mohamedi-nasreen|website=Queensland Art Gallery|access-date=2023-06-28}}</ref>

Mohamedi has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET Breuer), New York (2016);<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/nasreen-mohamedi|title=Nasreen Mohamedi|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|access-date=2023-06-27}}</ref> Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2015);<ref>{{cite web|title=NASREEN MOHAMEDI: Waiting is Part of Intense Living|url=https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/nasreen-mohamedi7#tab:slideshow|website=Talwar Gallery|access-date=2023-06-27}}</ref> Tate, Liverpool, UK (2014);<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/nasreen-mohamedi|title=Nasreen Mohamedi|website=Tate|access-date=2023-06-27}}</ref> Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India (2013);<ref>{{cite web|title=NASREEN MOHAMEDI: A view to infinity: A Retrospective (1937-1990)|url=https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/nasreen-mohamedi8#tab:slideshow;tab-1:slideshow|website=Talwar Gallery|access-date=2023-06-23}}</ref> and The Drawing Center, New York (2005).<ref>{{cite web|title=NASREEN MOHAMEDI: Lines among Lines|url=https://www.talwargallery.com/exhibitions/nasreen-mohamedi4#tab:slideshow;tab-1:slideshow|website=Talwar Gallery|access-date=2023-06-27|archive-date=7 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607065502/https://talwargallery.com/exhibitions/nasreen-mohamedi4#tab:slideshow;tab-1:slideshow|url-status=live}}</ref>

Her work was included in the 2021 exhibition ''[[Women in Abstraction]]'' at the [[Centre Pompidou]].<ref name="Women in abstraction">{{cite book |title=Women in abstraction |date=2021 |publisher=Thames & Hudson Ltd.; Thames & Hudson Inc |location=London : New York, New York |isbn=978-0500094372 |pages=170}}</ref>

=== Photography ===

Beginning in the 1950s and early 1960s, Mohamedi began photographing her surrounding environment – not only during her frequent travels, but in the course of her daily life. Her photographs were more than documentary however; photos from the 1980s, for example, like her late work in pen and ink, are abstracted to the point of becoming non-representational. Her friend and art historian [[Geeta Kapur]] has placed Mohamedi's photographs between the artistic and the real, stating that they create "an allegory of (dis)placement between the subject and the object."<ref name="GeetaKapur" />

The photographs, although neither preparations for her drawings nor works incomplete in themselves, help to illuminate the principles that inform all of Mohamedi's work; as Gregory Galligan notes, "Mohamedi's is...a roaming, cursive, meandering consciousness, which lights effortlessly upon fragments in a landscape, the cityscape and Islamic architectural forms, such as the stepped cornice of an early mosque observed in extreme close-up...Spare, nearly weightless and almost entirely self-effacing, Mohamedi's aesthetic is ultimately about focusing consciousness back onto itself with the aid of an abstract foil."<ref>Gregory Galligan, "Nasreen Mohamedi: Lines Among Lines," ''Art Asia Pacific'', Fall 2005.</ref>
The first exhibition of Mohamedi's photowork outside of India was in 2003, at Talwar Gallery in New York. Her photography was based on themes such as desert landscapes, seascapes, weaving patterns, the architecture of [[Fatehpur Sikri]], and modern structures.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/nasreen-mohamedi|title=Nasreen Mohamedi – Exhibition at Tate Liverpool {{!}} Tate|last=Tate|website=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2018-03-03}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/arts/design/nasreen-mohamedi-becoming-one.html|title=Nasreen Mohamedi: 'Becoming One'|last=Cotter|first=Holland|date=2014|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-03-03|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=3 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303164758/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/arts/design/nasreen-mohamedi-becoming-one.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/philippe-vergne-on-nasreen-mohamedi/ Art in America, ''Philippe Vergne on Nasreen Mohamedi''], August 2015.
* [http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/artists-on-artists-william-kentridge-on-the-subtle-drama-of-the-indian-minimalist-nasreen-mohamedi/ The New York Times, ''William Kentridge on Nasreen Mohamedi''], 11 October 2013.
* [https://www.ft.com/content/35a60ec6-7127-11e2-9b5c-00144feab49a Financial Times, ''Nasreen Mohamedi: A View to Infinity''], 8 February 2013.
* [http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/remembering-nasreen-mohamedi-the-artist/263954 NDTV, ''Remembering Nasreen Mohamedi''], 3 February 2013.
* [http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/9rL8WWOanCRAf4GiI7sjBK/Art--The-line-of-control.html Mint, ''The line of control''], 1 February 2013.
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/arts/design/02online.html?scp=4&sq=HollandCotterMOMA&st=cse The New York Times, ''Squiggly, Tangly and Angular''], 1 December 2010.
* [http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/12/artseen/nasreen-mohamedi-the-grid-unplugged The Brooklyn Rail, ''Nasreen Mohamedi:The grid, unplugged''], December 2008/January 2009.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081020084616/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/10/19/stories/2008101950260700.htm The Hindu, ''Between the Lines''], 19 October 2008.
* [http://metropolism.com/magazine/2007-no6/gematigd-modernisme/english Metropolis M, ''Moderate Modernism: On Tagore, Le Corbusier and Nasreen Mohamedi''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506153457/http://metropolism.com/magazine/2007-no6/gematigd-modernisme/english |date=6 May 2016 }}, December 2007.
* [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E7DE1130F930A25756C0A9639C8B63 The New York Times, ''Lines Among Lines''], 13 May 2005.
* [http://www.artcritical.com/2003/12/01/nasreen-mohamedi/ Artcritical.com, ''Nasreen Mohamedi''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818045254/http://www.artcritical.com/2003/12/01/nasreen-mohamedi/ |date=18 August 2022 }}, December 2003.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mohamedi, Nasreen}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:1990 deaths]]
[[Category:Sulaymani Bohras]]
[[Category:Indian Ismailis]]
[[Category:Indian expatriates in Bahrain]]
[[Category:Indian expatriates in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Artists from Karachi]]
[[Category:Artists from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Alumni of Central Saint Martins]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:Women artists from Maharashtra]]

Nasreen Mohamedi - Revision history

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