ZARINA (B. 1937)
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION, NORTH CAROLINA
ZARINA (B. 1937)

Ahmedabad; Kabul; Beirut (from the portfolio These Cities Blotted into the Wilderness (Adrienne Rich after Ghalib))

Details
ZARINA (B. 1937)
Ahmedabad; Kabul; Beirut (from the portfolio These Cities Blotted into the Wilderness (Adrienne Rich after Ghalib))
signed, dated, titled and numbered '1/20 Ahmedabad Zarina 2003'; '1/20 Kabul Zarina 2003' ; '1/20 Beirut Zarina 2003' (lower edge)
woodblock prints on Okawara paper laid on Somerset paper
7 1/8 x 6 ½ in. (18.1 x 16.4 cm.); 5 ¼ x 7 3/8 in. (13.4 x 18.6 cm.); 5 ½ x 7 ¾ in. (14 x 19.8 cm.) plate;
15 ¾ x 13 in. (40 x 33 cm.) each sheet
Executed in 2003; three prints on paper; number one from an edition of twenty
3
Provenance
Private Collection, Connecticut
Thence by descent
Literature
Cities, Countries and Borders, exhibition catalogue, New Delhi, 2004 (others from the edition illustrated, unpaginated)
Zarina: Counting 1977-2005, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2005 (others from the edition illustrated, unpaginated)
S.S. Patel, ‘Zarina: Edges of Her World’, Art Asia Pacific, No. 54, 2007, p. 74 (one from another edition illustrated)
Zarina: Weaving Memory, 1990-2006, exhibition catalogue, Mumbai, 2007, (others from the edition illustrated, unpaginated)
M. Machida, Unsettled Visions: Contemporary Asian American Artists and the Social Imaginary, Durham, 2008, p. 227 (one from another edition illustrated)
G.Sen, Your History Gets in the Way of My Memory, Essays on Indian Artists, Noida, 2012, p. 147 (other from the edition illustrated)
Zarina: Paper Like Skin, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles, 2012, pp. 130, 132 (others from the edition illustrated)
A.R. Mufti, ‘Zarina’s Language Question’, Marg: A Magazine of the Arts, Vol. 68, No. 1, 2016, pp. 28-29 (others from the edition illustrated)
Exhibited
Mumbai, Gallery Chemould; New Delhi, Gallery Espace; Karachi, Chawkandi Art; Lahore, Rohtas Gallery2, Cities, Countries and Borders, 2004 (others from the edition exhibited)
New York, Bose Pacia, Zarina: Counting 1977-2005, 10 November - 22 December 2005 (others from the edition exhibited)
Mumbai, Bodhi Art, Zarina: Weaving Memory, 1990-2006, 2007 (others from the edition exhibited)
New York, Luhring Augustine, Twenty Five, 8 May – 19 June, 2010 (others from the edition exhibited)
Los Angeles, Hammer Museum; New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Zarina: Paper Like Skin, September 2012 - September 2013 (others from the edition exhibited)
Saint-Étienne, Musée d'art Moderne et Contemporain, Archéologie du Présent, 4 March 2016 – 8 January 2017 (others from the edition exhibited)
New York, Asia Society Museum, Lucid Dreams and Distant Visions, 27 June - 6 August 2017 (others from the edition exhibited)

Lot Essay

"With considerable insight Zarina reclaims cities that have been destroyed, violated and in some cases have disappeared in her series Cities, Countries, Borders, woodcuts completed in 2013. Grozny, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Beirut, Jenin, Baghdad, Kabul, Ahmedabad, New York are known for the civilizations they have produced [...] This series of prints raises the troubling questions of how we recognize cities, towns or even hamlets, or even more troubling if we remember them at all [...] The impression these prints leave is direct and straightforward. They provide grim records of senseless destruction and violence. Yet Zarina's characteristic spare monochromatic approach distances the events as reality. For her hope is in the memory of events. By drawing the paces, and recording the names in Urdu written in elegant Nastaliq calligraphy, she ensures that they leave an indelible impression upon our minds." (M. Milford-Lutzker, 'Mapping the Dislocations', Zarina: Counting 1977-2005, New York, 2005, unpaginated)

More from South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art

View All
View All