ONLINE PROGRAM

Shahzia Sikander

Valerie Fletcher, emeritus senior curator, Hirshhorn Museum

Born in 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander enrolled at the National College of Art in 1987. There, she studied under one of the few living artists skilled in the Mughal tradition of miniature painting. She mastered the original meticulous techniques, including grinding minerals for pigments, making specialized paintbrushes, and preparing burnished paper. Determined to bring the long-neglected art into the modern era, Sikander featured contemporary locales and figures in her BFA project in 1991. Two years later, the artist emigrated to the U.S. to earn an MFA at RISD, which was followed by intensive work during a two-year residency at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. 

In this lecture, Valerie Fletcher traces Sikander’s trajectory as she emerged from obscurity and rose to international fame. In 1999, her solo show at the Hirshhorn Museum attracted critical acclaim, which was dimmed by the anti-Muslim backlash after the events of 9/11. Sikander’s iconography subsequently addressed and then moved beyond the ensuing fears and cultural misunderstandings. Receiving a MacArthur “genius” award in 2006 enabled the artist to expand into other media, notably murals, mosaics, and video. The retrospective exhibition in 2016 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Houston Museum cemented her reputation as a pioneering transnational artist.

$15 fee for guests and subscribers (no fee for members)