Untitled

Nasreen Mohamedi

ca.1970 · Ink and graphite on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

Mohamedi’s practice demonstrates a singular and sustained engagement with abstraction in post-Independence India. Influenced by her world travels, she was equally drawn to Mughal architecture, Indian classical music, and Italian neorealist cinema as she was to the work of Minimalist artist Agnes Martin, the architect Louis Kahn, the painter Paul Klee, and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Settling on a square format for her works in the 1970s, Mohamedi used a Rotring Rapidograph pen, as well as set squares, T squares, and rulers, to draw precise lines, sometimes incised into the paper. Demonstrating her skill and formal rigor, while clearly announcing her commitment to a pared-down aesthetic, the parallel and angled lines on this work stretch tautly across the page; the spaces between alternately reverberate or create horizons, planes, and depths.

Artist

Nasreen Mohamedi

Date

ca.1970

Medium

Ink and graphite on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2019