ZARINA (B. 1937)

"In these etchings with chine collé, aquatint, spit bite, lithograph crayon and marks made with an electric tool play texture against the grid that attempts to control their seeming randomness. It consists of six prints, the first five repeating the grid and the name of the portfolio while the sixth simply titled 'Edge of Land' breaks with that structure to create a form that resembles a section of the globe. This unites the particular experience of being the edge with the latitudes and longitudes of the macro world." (Joyce Brodsky, 'The Imprint of a Transnational Life,' exhibition catalogue, Weaving Memory, Bodhi Art, 2007, unpaginated)

An inspiration among her contemporaries, straddling the art scene across four decades, Zarina was one of a group of artists who represented India at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. A retrospective exhibition of her work is scheduled to open in September 2012 at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. This exhibition will then travel to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work is in the permanent collections of the MoMA, New York, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; and the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.