Nasreen Mohamedi: Lines Among Lines

It is worthpursuing the comparison with Martin:Sheworked withsimple foundobjects; shepainted dotsof atmospheric color;shedrewpeople andgrass aslittlerectangles; sheworked outspaces between dropsof rain.Shemadeanairy matrix. in weaving, whichledherto theopenformof thelattice.

Herparallel linesandgridsundulate Shewasinterested invisible-"luminous for theshimmer following a pencil alonga stringor measuring tape;andtheyarenearly containers of line,"writeRosalind Krauss andMarcia Tucker.'o Evenwhenshereturned to painting aftera periodof renunciation, it was in theshape lt isasif sheaccepted impotence, humility, stillsubliminal expression of palehardpaintings. emptyrectangles, privileging through JohnCageshemadea bridgeto the minimal/conceptual aesthetic, above silence, andblankness-and painting in systemic all the grid.Shetendedthento be included showsandherworkwasplaced with Frank Stella, So, LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Donald Judd,CarlAndre.

"Thegridannounces lquotetwo passages fromRosalind Krauss: amongotherthings, modern art'swillto silence, its "Thephysical qualities hostility of thesurface, wecouldsay,aremapped to literature, to narrative, to discourse." on to the physical dimension of thesamesurface.

Andthese two planes-the andtheaesthetic-are demonstrated to bethe aesthetic in thisway,the bottomlineof thegridis a naked anddetermined sameplane: co-extensive, and...coordinate.

Considered materialism."" precedents madesoprominent Minimalists hasof course Thegridproper, byAmerican throughthe 1960s and1970s, firstandforemost. in signalmoments of Modernism-in the workof PietMondrian, Mondrian derived a logicfrom with,the structure nature, turningit intoa hypothetical structure of the universe conceived as,or ratherconflated of gains mind.

A nonrepresentational image, with nature as the ultimate referent, intelligible coherence only when we the presence, manifested asepiphany or asmaterial is translated intoa linguisacknowledge that phenomenal experience, tic idea. planeastheultimate favors field Bythetimewe cometo lateModernism, Clement Greenberg's theorizing the picture purely into of visionwherein experience nature) is finally translated a optical sensation, an eminently visual form devoid {of reality, meaning.

Nasreen's workmaybereadin termsof theselateModernist of anykindof illusionistic or evenlinguistic indicate. manifestations-but notentirely in thosetermseither, aslshall phenomenon Nasreen's reason for adopting enough:so thata natural maybeopened outto reveal thegridis familiar great visible itsinnermatrix; sothatthesubtle sensation thatthedismantling of the structures of nature creates wouldsurfaceof wateror invisible windcurrents fromthe desertplains, face;so thatthe inflected astheseareprojected ontoa graph, pure marked canbecome thought. is inducted intotheidealstructure Thelogicis precisely thatnature asa referent of a gridthatbecalms thevisioninto grid; in thisway,the statesof rest.Considered a structured surface, actslikea supportfor disinterested/undifferentiated it is,at thesametime,a refutation appearance; of thesimulacrum.

"Thenewimage Inthe1960s, Nasreen writes: of purerationalism.

Pureintellect thathasto beseparated fromemotion...A painandpleasure."

Andadds:"Againa difficult statebeyond taskbegins.""

In art-historical terms.it wouldbecorrect to placeNasreen at the momentin the 1960s whenartistsbecame intervisuallanguage in favorof structures thatrequired nocontesting estedin resolving andno hierarchical balancing of parts; whentheywereintenton adducing a neutral formatin whichallcompositional unitsareequalandinseparable fromthe is in perfect formalwholeandthesurface unity.Nasreen acknowledged thismoment andtooka firmstepintographic ismin the early1970s.

Sheworked, aloneamongall Indianartists, withsmall-format, strictlyruleddrawings in inkand fromthedelicate watercolor andpencil on paper.

Butjustasshemoved away(inthe 1970s) tracery of hergrey-and-ochre paintings drawing-grids, shemovedaway(inthe 1980s)from the ruledsurface to diagonals, in whatI callan to develop ospiringmode. position, ThusNasreen is quitelikeAgnesMartinandnot likeher,too.In continuation of Martin's shemayhavesaic poisein thechoice whichisto say,in herformalaesthetthatan artistseeks bothcompassion andrational of structures, ic;that in thesentience in suchsolitude-in herdiarV, shewrites"0necreates dimensions out of solitude""contained visionof theworldsothatsheneedneverbefoundwantingin theegalitarian worldview theartistexcavates a mystical "the proffer.

ButwhileAgnesMartinwrotethat"in thediagonal theendshangloose" andthat thatthe mystics circle