Nasreen Mohamedi

5 Sep-15 Nov 2009

Overview

The most substantial exhibition to date by Nasreen Mohamedi (1937-90). She produced small scale conceptual/minimalist drawings with a South Asian infulence. Born in Karachi, India (now Pakistan), Mohamedi created a highly developed language in drawings in pencil and ink on paper and black and white photography from the 1950s to the 1980s. Early drawings, often suggestive of atmospheric landscapes with plants and trees, were followed by a series of variations around the grid, while later works present free-floating geometric forms. These abstract forms were often developed in intricately detailed diaries, written throughout the artist’s life, where the written word morphs into personalised symbols, grids and diagonals. She simultaneously created a series of photographs of fields and street scenes which are tightly cropped to focus on abstract patterns in a quest for elemental form and the sublime.