SHAHZIA SIKANDER | UNTITLED

Gifted by the artist to John L. Moore

The current lot exhibits Shahzia Sikander’s process of exploration as her art evolved past the miniature tradition. While retaining the precepts of intricate and small-scale renderings, she pushes past traditional boundaries, re-inventing the medium and contemporizing it for today. This painting is similar to a large series that Sikander produced in the early 2000s, involving liquefied inks and washes on clay coated paper. The artist’s characteristic layering and interlacing of forms has been employed here, however instead of form, she has used color. Like a jigsaw puzzle, she has fused different hues together to produce her animals in a myriad of strange and compelling configurations. When writing about her work, Todd Hosfelt aptly states “the “craft” seduces you. next you’re bewildered by the story — the piece is purposeful — the message is puzzling. you can look and look and there’s always something new to discover. your interpretation of the work changes over the course of time. the imagery gets lodged deep in your psyche and repeatedly re-surfaces. as your life experience changes, so does your understanding of the art. that, in fact, defines what i think good art is.” (T. Hosfelt, ‘Story Telling’, 18 March 2008, accessed 13/1/20 <https://toddhosfelt.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/story-telling/>) A couple of works from this series are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York