Fatima Zahra Hassan

Artist

Biographical Details

Fatima Zahra Hassan was educated at the National College of Art Lahore and Royal College of Art London where she got her MA with distinction and was then offered to do PhD in Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts from the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, London in 1997. Zahra, as she prefers to be called has taught since 1994, extensively on Indian, Mughal & Persian miniature painting and drawing, decorative arts of the Muslim World and have also conducted in-numerable workshops in the area of her specialisation at the Victoria & Albert Museum London, The British Museum, Asia House, National Maritime Museum Greenwich, London, The Globe-Shakespeare Theatre, Birmingham Art Gallery, Art in Action Water Perry Park Oxford and at many other venues nationally and internationally.

Besides being involved in adult learning and community education, she is actively engaged in post graduate teaching at the London Prince’s School of Traditional Arts. She is also part of many research groups including the University of Cambridge Shahnama Project. She is pioneer in introducing the art of Indian, Mughal and Persian painting in UK. Her contribution towards practical arts of the Islamic world with a focuss on Art of Book from South Asia and Iran make her a person of exceptional abilities. Zahra has been a Scimmel scholar, a winner of World of Islam and Al - Tajir Trust and Brakat Awards for her MA and PhD. She was also declared as the best artist of 1993 MA RCA degree show by Daily Telegraph. She was selected as one of the Muslim Female Role Models by Tribal UK in 2007. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and her works her in private and corporate collections to name a few; HRH The Prince of Wales, Aga Khan Development Network, Kabul. She has illustrated two children books published by London publishers namely, “Avicenna – Prince of Physicians” published 1995, and “Kingdom of Joy – Tales from Rumi” published in 2002 with some more titles in the pipeline. She has also designed & embellished various surfaces inspired by Islamic and South Asian art & desgn motifs for a variety of products, namely; tile, carpet, embroidary, tableware, etc.

She has shown her works in Henry More Gallery RCA London, London, Leeds City Art Gallery, Mall Galleries London, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, National Portrait Gallery London for auction, Royal Windsor Castle, Alan Baxter & Associates Gallery London, National Building Museum Washington DC, USA, The Prince’s Foundation Gallery London, Museum of Islamic civilisation Sharjah, UAE, etc.

Her research interests are mainly in the Middle Eastern and South Asian Manusrcipt Illustartion / Art of Book, knowledge transfer through the Silk Route, Drawing and Denotation Systems and Mathematical Proportions in Islamic Art. She is currently developing new ideas in art and technology. Currently teaching at the College of Fine Arts & Design, University of Sharjah, UAE. Besides, Fatima Zahra is a visiting scholar and an artist at various universities in UK & Pakistan.