In Autumn 2018, BALTIC will stage Rasheed Araeen: A Retrospective, the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s work, spanning more than 60 years. The exhibition, staged across BALTIC's Level 3 and Level 2 galleries, presents a body of work that has had a profound influence on generations of artists, writers and thinkers.

The exhibition is structured across five chapters: from the artist’s early experiments in painting in Karachi in the 1950s and early 60s, his geometric structures produced after his arrival in London in 1964, key pieces from the 70s and 80s following Araeen’s political awakening, his nine panel cruciform works from the 80s and 90s and a selection of his new geometric paintings and wall structures.

Alongside this, materials relating to Araeen’s writing, editorial and curatorial projects are presented as part of an expanded artistic practice that in its scope, continues to challenge the formal, ideological and political assumptions of Eurocentric modernism.

A Retrospective was first shown at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, and is curated by Nick Aikens.

About the artist
Born and educated in Pakistan, Rasheed Araeen (b. 1935) trained as an engineer before moving to Europe in the 1960s to become one of the pioneers of minimalist sculpture in Britain. Araeen accepted an honorary doctorate from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, on 2 July 2018, and has three additional honorary doctorates from the universities of Southampton, East London and Wolverhampton. Selected Solo Exhibitions include: Rasheed Araeen: A Retrospective, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2017-2018); Rasheed Araeen, Going East, Rossi and Rossi, Hong Kong (2015-2016); Rasheed Araeen, Grosvenor Gallery, London/Dubai (2014); Zero to Infinity, Tate Britain, London (2013); To Whom it May Concern, Serpentine Gallery, London (1996).

About the exhibition
The exhibition first opened at the Van Abbemuseum and has travelled to MAMCO, Geneva before coming to BALTIC. Following the run at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, it will tour to Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow.

A monograph, edited by Nick Aikens and published by JRP Ringier in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, MAMCO, BALTIC and Garage includes new essays by Aikens, Kate Fowle, Courtney Martin, Michael Newman, Gene Ray, Dominic Rhatz, John Roberts, Marcus du Sautoy, Zoe Sutherland and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie and an extensive conversation between Aikens and Araeen.

Digital Archive

Archive Catalogue

Library Catalogue