SHAHZIA SIKANDER (B. 1969)
Lot 598

SHAHZIA SIKANDER (B. 1969)

Wings, Veils and Dresses I; Untitled

Closed21 March 2012

Price Realised

USD 25,000

More Information

How to sell

SHAHZIA SIKANDER (B. 1969)
Wings, Veils and Dresses I; Untitled
signed 'Shahzia 97' (lower right) each; further bearing labels 'Hosfelt Gallery San Francisco SHAHZIA SIKANDER 'Wings, Veils, and Dresses I, 1997 [...]'; SHAHZIA SIKANDER 'Untitled, 1997 [...]' (on the reverse) each
gouache, vegetable dye, watercolor and clay on paper
27¾ x 21¾ in. (70.5 x 55.2 cm.) each
Executed in 1997
Two works on paper (2)

Christie's New York, 10 September 2007, lot 99
Formerly from the Estate of Marcia May
Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco

Specialist note

Shahzia Sikander's work is included in the collections of the MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the SF MoMA, among others. She is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2006. In 1997 she was included in the Whitney Biennial.

Sikander, having studied miniature painting at the National College of Arts in Lahore, beautifully reinvents the classical technique using a variety of mediums. Her meticulous brushwork, coupled with digital manipulation, as seen in Utopia 2, create fantastical juxtapositions that express the collision and synthesis of her dual American-Pakistani identity. Infused with her knowledge of art history, Sikander has successfully re-evaluated a tradition "to the extent that tradition is no longer opposed to modernity." (H. Bhabha, The University of Chicago, 1999)

"I didn't set out with the aim to subvert, let alone reinvent, a tradition, those boundaries became blurred simply through my engagement with miniature painting [...]" (Artist quote, The University of Chicago, 1999, accessed on February 10, 2012, https://www.shahziasikander.com/essay03.html)