Art & the History of Art "Havah... to breathe, air, life": Lecture by Shahzia Sikander

Sikander will discuss her practice and how her paintings led to sculpture, with a focus on her project at Madison Square Park and the Appellate Division Courthouse in New York.

Open to the public! For accessibility needs, please contact finearts@amherst.edu or call (413) 542-2365.

Biography:

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1969, Shahzia Sikander took up the traditional practice of miniature painting during Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq's military regime, at a time when the medium was deeply unpopular among young artists. Sikander earned a B.F.A in 1991 from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore, where she received rigorous training from master miniaturist Bashir Ahmad. She became the first woman to teach in the Miniature Painting Department at NCA, alongside Ahmad, and was the first artist from the department to challenge the medium's technical and aesthetic framework. Sikander's breakthrough work, The Scroll, 1989-90, received national critical acclaim in Pakistan, winning the prestigious Shakir Ali Award, the NCA's highest merit award, and the Haji Sharif award from excellence in miniature painting, subsequently launching the medium into the forefront of NCA's program, which brought international recognition to this medium within contemporary art practices. The artist moved to the United States to pursue an M.F.A. at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1993 to 1995; from 1995 to 1997, she participated in the CORE Program of the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Sikander has been the recipient of many notable awards, including most recently the Pollock Prize for Creativity in 2023, the Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize in 2022, the Asia Society Award for Significant Contribution to Contemporary Art in 2015, a Medal of Art by the U.S. Department of State in 2012, and a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. Sikander's major outdoor project, an 8-foot bronze female sculpture, is currently on the roof of the Appellate Courthouse in Manhattan. An accompanying 18-foot female sculpture was exhibited in Madison Square Park in 2023, and will travel to the University of Houston in spring of 2024. A survey exhibition of Sikander’s work will be organised in 2024 as part of the Venice Biennale Collateral Show by the Cleveland Museum of Art and Cincinnati Art Museum. 

This event is sponsored by the Rapaport Lectureship: The Rapaport Lectureship in Contemporary Art Fund, established in 1999 at Amherst College, which provides support for an annual lecture by an artist, art writer, or art critic on some aspect of contemporary art. The goal of the Rapaport Lectureship is to increase awareness and appreciation of contemporary art among students and the community. The lecture is free and open to the public.