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Nasreen Mohamedi

“The poignant story of Mohamedi, a relatively little-known but significant artist, reveals a highly individual artistic quest, drawing on historic sources from across the world, alongside her evocative photography as an unexpected form of visual note-taking.”

SHEENA WAGSTAFF, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery

Untitled, ca. 1975  Ink and graphite on paper   7 1/2” x 7 1/2”

On returning to India in the early 1960s after studying in London and Paris, Nasreen broke away from the milieu of representational art pervasive in post independence India and carved out a unique space for herself at the crest of Indian modernism. Distilling her perceptions to their essence, her means to the essential, un-tethered she floated, above and away from any categorization. Extracting the structure within nature and unleashing the poetry residing within structure, Mohamedi strove to create a unity through form between the outside and the inside. The waves in the sea, the sand under the waves, the sun over the sea, in Mohamedi’s drawings they are all on a single plane, interconnected, and susceptible to the gentle variance of the viewer’s perception.

Mohamedi, employing pen and pencil, transformed sheets of paper into a tour de force. Remarkably executed over three decades ago in an environment where narrative and figurative art was the rule, Mohamedi’s clarity of pursuit and resolve is matched only by the taut tensile energy resonating through the lines. Dismantling the rigidity of the grid, she infuses them with a dynamic rhythm that at times soars, dives, expands, and collapses. Like the footsteps of sunlight through a courtyard or wind sweeping over water, they are abstract in form but not in experience. Her drawings suggest the magnanimous yet simple phenomenon so truly that they infuse an awe-inspiring chill as to the immensity of our experience and the poverty of means used to elicit it.

“There will never be anyone like Nasreen again in the Indian art world. There will be geniuses and transgressive rebels, but none so noble.”

Geeta Kapur

Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery

Untitled, ca. 1970s  Black and white photograph  9″ x 15″


Nasreen Mohamedi had a parallel practice in Photography, though rarely exhibited in her lifetime her commitment to the medium has been revealing with surprises and wonder since the first exhibition devoted to her photographs at Talwar, NY in 2003. Employing the medium, Mohamedi distilled the structure and order around her to an essence, of form. The Photographs are sited in simple encounters of the tangible, pared down to light and dark, seeming to reveal universal truths beyond the logical. Intensely personal, and as controlled as the gaze of the artist, they reach outside the self, to perceive and connect.

“If people, especially young artists, knew about Mohamedi, they would love her the way they do Eva Hesse. But then, the whole story of modern Indian art, so rich and complex, is still barely acknowledged in New York, making galleries that specialize in it, like Talwar, invaluable additions to the city’s art culture.”

HOLLAND COTTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery




“Successive lines of graphite on paper, drawn at slightly varying angles, compose a fabric of traces that attain a perspectival, lyrical intensity as if floating in space.”

Adriano Pedrosa

Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery

Untitled, ca. 1975  Black and white photograph  10.6″ x 14.8″

 

 

 

″… Mohamedi was a great artist. She was increasingly audacious in her experimentations with space.... Her work took on a new intensity, suggestive of movement and spirit, and an almost transcendent idea of pure vision.”

THE BOSTON GLOBE

“The lines extending beyond the austerely sensual contours of the form convey a body in movement through time and space. There is a serene nakedness — a quiet, profound sense of calm — to Mohamedi’s drawings, as she patiently structures time and space into clusters, intervals and curves. They are resolute and vulnerable. They never become an image and even at their most repetitive they do not become a pattern. Rather, they are trajectories. But more to the point, they are really not like anything else.”

JOHN YAU, HYPERALLERGIC

Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery

Untitled, ca. 1975  Ink on paper  19 1/4” x 19 1/4”

 

 

 

 

“[Mohamedi’s] works of astonishing subtlety, faintly traced pencil drawings that have both architectural and musical overtones. Small deviations from perfect regularity set up cascading patterns, as if an Agnes Martin painting began pulsing like the ripples on the surface of a pond."

THE WASHINGTON POST

Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery

Untitled, ca. 1980s  Ink and graphite on paper  22.28" x 28.38"

 

 

 

 

“...Exquisite yet robust photographs and drawings by Nasreen Mohamedi. Some float on the page like a gossamer veil. They are infused with the rhythm of a Bridget Riley, the playfulness of Piet Mondrian and the lyricism of an Ellsworth Kelly line leaf drawing...”

APOLLO

 

Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery

Nasreen Mohamedi | Diary Entry - 18th July, 1969 London

 

 

 

 

“Nasreen Mohamedi, whose extraordinary works bespeak a combination of precision and strength, delicacy and power.”

VANITY FAIR

Nasreen Mohamedi - Artists - Talwar Gallery


 

Mohamedi has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET Breuer), New York (2016); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2015); Tate, Liverpool, UK (2014); Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India (2013) and The Drawing Center, New York (2005).

Mohamedi’s works have also been on view at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia; Documenta XII, Kassel, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Harvard University Art Museum, Cambridge, MA; Institute of Arab and Islamic Art, NY; Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO; Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, Spain; Whitechapel Gallery, London; and Turner Contemporary, England. 
 

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Untitled, ca. 1965
Oil on canvas  
36” x 48”
TG 4142

Untitled, ca. 1965
Oil on canvas  
36” x 48”
TG 4142

Untitled, ca. 1968
Vintage silver gelatin photograph 
8 3/4” x 12”
TG 3830

Untitled, ca. 1968
Vintage silver gelatin photograph 
8 3/4” x 12”
TG 3830

Untitled, 1962
Watercolor, ink and acrylic on paper 
19” x 27 3/4”
TG 3743

Untitled, 1962
Watercolor, ink and acrylic on paper 
19” x 27 3/4”
TG 3743

Untitled, ca. 1965
Aquatint
13" x 19"
TG 2794

Untitled, ca. 1965
Aquatint
13" x 19"
TG 2794

Untitled, ca. 1965
Ink, graphite and pastel on paper
9.5" x 12"
TG 2796

Untitled, ca. 1965
Ink, graphite and pastel on paper
9.5" x 12"
TG 2796

Untitled, ca. 1960
Ink, graphite and watercolor on paper
13 3/5” x 19 3/10”
TG 1282

Untitled, ca. 1960
Ink, graphite and watercolor on paper
13 3/5” x 19 3/10”
TG 1282

Untitled, ca. 1980
Ink and graphite on paper
19 1/2" x 27"
TG 1658

Untitled, ca. 1980
Ink and graphite on paper
19 1/2" x 27"
TG 1658

Untitled, ca. 1980
Ink and graphite on paper
19" x 27"
TG 1659

Untitled, ca. 1980
Ink and graphite on paper
19" x 27"
TG 1659

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Ink and graphite on paper on board
11' x 14"
TG 3812

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Ink and graphite on paper on board
11' x 14"
TG 3812

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Ink and graphite on paper
22.28" x 28.38"
TG 1683

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Ink and graphite on paper
22.28" x 28.38"
TG 1683

Untitled, ca. late 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7" x 7"
TG 2395

Untitled, ca. late 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7" x 7"
TG 2395

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Graphite on graph paper
8" x 10"
TG 2402

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Graphite on graph paper
8" x 10"
TG 2402

Untitled, ca. 1975
Ink and graphite on paper 
7 1/2” x 7 1/2”
TG 1641

Untitled, ca. 1975
Ink and graphite on paper 
7 1/2” x 7 1/2”
TG 1641

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1640

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1640

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1633

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1633

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1628

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1628

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1627

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1627

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Black and white photograph
35.5" x 15"
TG 1131

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Black and white photograph
35.5" x 15"
TG 1131

Untitled, ca. 1980
Black and white photograph
9.4″ x 11.9″
TG 2586

Untitled, ca. 1980
Black and white photograph
9.4″ x 11.9″
TG 2586

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9.6" x 15"
TG 2567

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9.6" x 15"
TG 2567

Untitled, ca. 1980
Black and white photograph
9.4″ x 11.8″
TG 1138

Untitled, ca. 1980
Black and white photograph
9.4″ x 11.8″
TG 1138

Diary Pages, ca. mid 1970s
Ink on paper
TG 2499

Diary Pages, ca. mid 1970s
Ink on paper
TG 2499

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
8.8" x 14.2"
TG 1678

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
8.8" x 14.2"
TG 1678

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9″ x 15″
TG 1125

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9″ x 15″
TG 1125

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
10" x 15"
TG 2547

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
10" x 15"
TG 2547

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9″ x 15″
TG 1133

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9″ x 15″
TG 1133

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
10.6″ x 14.8″
TG 1673

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
10.6″ x 14.8″
TG 1673

Untitled, ca. 1965
Oil on canvas  
36” x 48”
TG 4142

Untitled, ca. 1965
Oil on canvas  
36” x 48”
TG 4142

Untitled, ca. 1968
Vintage silver gelatin photograph 
8 3/4” x 12”
TG 3830

Untitled, ca. 1968
Vintage silver gelatin photograph 
8 3/4” x 12”
TG 3830

Untitled, 1962
Watercolor, ink and acrylic on paper 
19” x 27 3/4”
TG 3743

Untitled, 1962
Watercolor, ink and acrylic on paper 
19” x 27 3/4”
TG 3743

Untitled, ca. 1965
Aquatint
13" x 19"
TG 2794

Untitled, ca. 1965
Aquatint
13" x 19"
TG 2794

Untitled, ca. 1965
Ink, graphite and pastel on paper
9.5" x 12"
TG 2796

Untitled, ca. 1965
Ink, graphite and pastel on paper
9.5" x 12"
TG 2796

Untitled, ca. 1960
Ink, graphite and watercolor on paper
13 3/5” x 19 3/10”
TG 1282

Untitled, ca. 1960
Ink, graphite and watercolor on paper
13 3/5” x 19 3/10”
TG 1282

Untitled, ca. 1980
Ink and graphite on paper
19 1/2" x 27"
TG 1658

Untitled, ca. 1980
Ink and graphite on paper
19 1/2" x 27"
TG 1658

Untitled, ca. 1980
Ink and graphite on paper
19" x 27"
TG 1659

Untitled, ca. 1980
Ink and graphite on paper
19" x 27"
TG 1659

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Ink and graphite on paper on board
11' x 14"
TG 3812

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Ink and graphite on paper on board
11' x 14"
TG 3812

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Ink and graphite on paper
22.28" x 28.38"
TG 1683

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Ink and graphite on paper
22.28" x 28.38"
TG 1683

Untitled, ca. late 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7" x 7"
TG 2395

Untitled, ca. late 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7" x 7"
TG 2395

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Graphite on graph paper
8" x 10"
TG 2402

Untitled, ca. 1980s
Graphite on graph paper
8" x 10"
TG 2402

Untitled, ca. 1975
Ink and graphite on paper 
7 1/2” x 7 1/2”
TG 1641

Untitled, ca. 1975
Ink and graphite on paper 
7 1/2” x 7 1/2”
TG 1641

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1640

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1640

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1633

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1633

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1628

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1628

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1627

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Ink and graphite on paper
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
TG 1627

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Black and white photograph
35.5" x 15"
TG 1131

Untitled, ca. 1970s
Black and white photograph
35.5" x 15"
TG 1131

Untitled, ca. 1980
Black and white photograph
9.4″ x 11.9″
TG 2586

Untitled, ca. 1980
Black and white photograph
9.4″ x 11.9″
TG 2586

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9.6" x 15"
TG 2567

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9.6" x 15"
TG 2567

Untitled, ca. 1980
Black and white photograph
9.4″ x 11.8″
TG 1138

Untitled, ca. 1980
Black and white photograph
9.4″ x 11.8″
TG 1138

Diary Pages, ca. mid 1970s
Ink on paper
TG 2499

Diary Pages, ca. mid 1970s
Ink on paper
TG 2499

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
8.8" x 14.2"
TG 1678

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
8.8" x 14.2"
TG 1678

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9″ x 15″
TG 1125

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9″ x 15″
TG 1125

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
10" x 15"
TG 2547

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
10" x 15"
TG 2547

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9″ x 15″
TG 1133

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
9″ x 15″
TG 1133

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
10.6″ x 14.8″
TG 1673

Untitled, ca. 1975
Black and white photograph
10.6″ x 14.8″
TG 1673

Nasreen Mohamedi
Nasreen Mohamedi
in Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70 Kunsthalle Bielefeld December 2, 2023 - May 3, 2024
Nasreen Mohamedi
Nasreen Mohamedi
in Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70 Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France June 3 - October 22, 2023
Elles font l'abstraction
Elles font l'abstraction
Nasreen Mohamedi and Arpita Singh Guggenheim Bilbao October 22, 2021 - February 27, 2022
as the wind blows
as the wind blows
20th Anniversary Exhibition Talwar Gallery, New York September 25, 2021 - February 12, 2022
Nasreen Mohamedi
Nasreen Mohamedi
Pull with a Direction Talwar Gallery, New York February 29, 2020 – February 6, 2021
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
Inaugural Exhibition at The MET Breuer The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York March 18 - June 5, 2016
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
Waiting is Part of Intense Living Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia September 23, 2015 - January 11, 2016
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
Becoming One Talwar Gallery, New York September 13, 2013 - January 25, 2014
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
A view to infinity: A Retrospective (1937-1990) Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi January 31 - December 8, 2013
On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century
On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York, NY November 11, 2010 - February 7, 2011
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
the grid, unplugged September 20, 2008 - February 28, 2009
Nasreen Mohammedi
Nasreen Mohammedi
documenta12 June 16 - September 23, 2007
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
Lines among Lines The Drawing Center, New York March 19 - May 21, 2005
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
NASREEN MOHAMEDI
Photoworks Talwar Gallery, New York September 18 – December 20, 2003

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