Nasreen Mohamedi

Much has been written and said extensively about Nasreen Mohamedi, one of the most prolific and significant artist of post-independent India. Her vast collection of work through decades represents an in-depth of the subconscious. She is one of the first artist in India who was inclined towards abstract form at a time when figurative art was the mainstream. She explored the metaphysical, optical and mystical ingenuously with patterns and shapes from 1960, making a shift from colourful oil paintings.

Her cosmopolitan outlook lead to conceptual complexity and visual subtlety by shaping her perceptions towards the essence of moving away from any categorization that keeps one within conformity. Fascinated with movements and with the play of light and dark, she employed pen and paper, executing introspectiveness and sensitivity to one surrounding by gentle and phenomenal lines. It was rooted in abstract expressionism influenced from her educational training in London and Paris.

Observing her life work is a spiritual exercise. The experimental range is from organic forms, delicate grids to dynamic, hard-edged lines. She was drawn to the magnanimity of space and was inspired by architecture and geometry. Man-made and natural environment infused into her works with a dynamic rhythm that at times soared, dived, expanded, and collapsed. The advent of technology and its influence is reflected in her work in the sense of its minimalism which she described as serving a utility purpose in its functionality and objectivity. It echoes the sufi and zen beliefs of de-cluttering of the self in order to be focused and allow light and knowledge in with patience.

In her personal life too, Mohamedi lived by this principal. She was known by colleagues and students to have lead a humble life with a strict routine. During her lifetime, she was a known artist in India but her works received critical acclaim in the west, posthumously.