Untitled 1970

Editor: Here we have an untitled work by Nasreen Mohamedi, from 1970, rendered in ink on paper. The geometric abstraction gives me a sense of calculated precision, yet something about the subtle variations feels very human. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Mohamedi’s practice occurred in a post-colonial India navigating its identity through globalized modernism. How does the apparent neutrality of these abstract forms serve in that particular socio-political landscape? What purpose might this measured aesthetic play when exhibited within a society undergoing profound transformation? Editor: I guess I hadn't thought about it in that context. I was caught up in the visual, how the lines create a kind of map. Is she charting some kind of internal landscape perhaps? Curator: The drawing appears almost technical, like an architectural blueprint or a musical score. Consider, then, where it’s displayed: in a gallery, a space historically loaded with colonial power structures. How might Mohamedi's work subtly challenge or reframe this power dynamic by adopting such a calculated style within that context? Does the chosen venue reshape its reading? Editor: So, is it fair to say that the political charge here exists more in its presentation, the venue itself? Does that diminish her own agency and message as an artist? Curator: I don't think it diminishes it at all, the site amplifies. Think of the piece not just as a singular expression, but as a component in a dialogue with institutions, societal expectations, and even historical narratives. She reclaims a modernistic universalism, in a way. Editor: I see. Viewing it now as an assertion, a statement of presence within this dialogue between tradition and modernity makes Mohamedi's artistic decision far more thought-provoking. Curator: Precisely. It encourages us to think critically about how art functions within a broader network of power and representation. A crucial take-away of conceptual modernism.