Hiba Schahbaz’s rich practice is rooted in the visual vocabulary of Indo-Persian miniature. Her work establishes a boldly feminine iconography based in South Asian art historical tradition, which she later employs to reimagine the depiction of non-Western women in the European canon.

Her recent larger-scale oils remake classic objectifying figures like the Odalisque, a typically “Oriental” nude figure in Western painting. Here, in Portrait (After Munch), Schahbaz reimagined Edvward Munch’s Madonna, an icon of Art History. While bearing the name of the Virgin Mary, seemingly confirmed by her red Halo, Munch’s Madonna was defined by her otherness. She was objectfied and passive, but also vaguely threatening, and in some readings, potentially vampiric.

Schahbaz’s reimagining places the artist’s likeness into the iconic image, finding a sense of agency, ease, and confidence. The painting reclaims beauty through a distinctly feminine, non-European lens, while still celebrating notions of pleasure, comfort, and romance. Aesthetic ideals that can be traditionally restrictive and objectifying appear here as a source of power and self-assertion.