NatishaMooring9 at 05:48, 6 February 2026

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{{Short description|Indian artist (born 1937)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox artist
| birth_name = Arpita Dutta
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1937|06|22|df=y}}
| image = The Chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, Ministry of Culture, Shri K.K. Chakravarty conferring the fellowship on eminent artist Arpita Singh, at a function, in New Delhi on October 10, 2014 (cropped).jpg
| caption = Singh in 2014
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Paramjit Singh (artist)|Paramjit Singh]]|1962}}
| children = [[Anjum Singh]]
| awards = [[Padma Bhushan]] (2011)<br />[[List of Lalit Kala Akademi fellows|Fellowship of Lalit Kala Akademi]] (2014)
| birth_place = [[Baranagar]], [[Calcutta]], [[Bengal Presidency]], British India
}}

'''Arpita Singh''' (''[[Maiden and married names|née]]'' '''Dutta'''; born 22 June 1937) is an Indian artist. Known to be a figurative artist and a modernist, she made her canvases to have both a story line and a carnival of images arranged in a curiously subversive manner. Her artistic approach can be described as an expedition without destination. Her work reflects her background.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Collection Highlights|year=2017 |publisher=[[Kiran Nadar Museum of Art]]|isbn=978-81-928037-6-0}}</ref> She brings her inner vision of emotions to the art inspired by her own background and what she sees around the society that mainly affects women. Her works also include traditional Indian art forms and aesthetics, like miniaturist painting and different forms of folk art, employing them in her work regularly.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.vadehraart.com/arpita-singh|title=Arpita Singh|website=Vadehra Art Gallery|language=en-US|access-date=2018-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303064401/http://www.vadehraart.com/arpita-singh|archive-date=2018-03-03|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Arpita was born on 22 June 1937 in [[Baranagar]], [[Bengal Presidency]] (now [[West Bengal]]).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Singh, Arpita |url=https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000078941 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=Grove Art Online |year=2003 |language=en |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t078941|isbn=978-1-884446-05-4 |last1=Srinivasan |first1=Sumitra Kumar }}</ref> She left the city with her mother and brother in 1946, a year before India got its independence from the British rule in 1947. In 1962, she married fellow artist [[Paramjit Singh (artist)|Paramjit Singh]] and they had a daughter, artist [[Anjum Singh]]. Currently{{when|date=December 2020}} she lives in [[Nizamuddin East]], [[New Delhi]].

== Education ==
Arpita attended the [[Delhi Technological University|Delhi Polytechnic]] in New Delhi from 1954–59 and graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mojarto.com/blogs/mojarto-profiles-artist-arpita-singh|title=Mojarto Profiles Artist - Arpita Singh|website=www.mojarto.com|access-date=2019-02-02|archive-date=23 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423074931/https://www.mojarto.com/blogs/mojarto-profiles-artist-arpita-singh|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Career==
After her graduation, Arpita Singh worked at the Weavers' Service Centre, [[Ministry of Textiles|Ministry of Textiles, Government of India]] in New Delhi and experienced the textiles industry closely. Her stint as a textile designer reflects in her work. The [[Talwar Gallery]] showcased her works in their first ever exhibition, 'Tying Down', dedicated to Arpita Singh in 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://talwargallery.com/arpita-tyingdowntime-pr/|title=Press Release – Tying down time « TALWAR GALLERY|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-02}}{{Dead link|date=July 2025}}</ref>

She took on a job with the Cottage Industries Restoration Program, a body of the Government of India. While she worked in the program, she met traditional artists and weavers of India. This is said to have impacted her artwork too.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Arpita Singh has significant contributions through a different social and political awareness. She was a founder member of the artists' group 'The Unknown', along with other alumni of the Department of Fine Arts of Delhi Polytechnic in the 1960s. The first group show of 'The Unknown' was held at IENS Building (now INS Building<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/Meeting-deadlines-to-beat-the-eclipse/article14633015.ece|title=Meeting deadlines to beat the eclipse|last=Baruah|first=Amit|date=2016-09-11|work=The Hindu|access-date=2019-02-02|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref>) at Rafi Marg, New Delhi in 1962.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/39877/9/09_chapter%203.pdf|title=The Personal Space of Woman: Paintings of Arpita Singh}}</ref>

=== First exhibition ===
Arpita Singh's first exhibition was held at Kunika Chemould Gallery, organised by Roshan Alkazi, New Delhi in 1972.<ref name=":1" />

=== Exhibitions thereafter ===
Post 1972, Arpita Singh extensively showed her work at [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy of Arts at London]] (1982), the [[Centre Georges Pompidou|Centre Georges Pompiduo]], Paris (1986), show in Geneva (1987) and at the [[Art Gallery of New South Wales]] Sydney (1993).<ref name=":0" /> She has also participated in the 3rd and 4th Trienniale of New Delhi & at the [[Havana Biennial]] in 1987 and the Indo-Greek Cultural Exhibition, in Greece, 1984.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Collection Highlights|publisher=Kiran Nadar Museum of Art}}</ref><ref name="Talwar" />

From 1987-89, Arpita organised and participated in the exhibition titled 'Through The Looking Glass' with her contemporaries, the women artists [[Nalini Malani]], [[Nilima Sheikh]], and [[Madhvi Parekh]]. The exhibition, featuring works by all four artists, travelled to five non-commercial venues across India.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archive |first=Asia Art |title=Centre for Contemporary Art 1989–1990 |url=https://aaa.org.hk/en/collections/search/archive/nilima-sheikh-archive-documents-on-four-women-artists-from-nilima-sheikh/object/centre-for-contemporary-art-19891990 |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=aaa.org.hk |language=en}}</ref> Inspired by a meeting in 1979 with [[Nancy Spero]], [[May Stevens]] and [[Ana Mendieta]] at the [[A.I.R. Gallery|AIR Gallery]] in New York (the first all-female artists’ cooperative gallery in the US), Malani had planned to organise an exhibition entirely of works by women artists, which failed to materialise due to a lack of interest and support.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rix |first=Juliet |title=Nalini Malani – interview: 'The future is female. There is no other way' |url=https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/nalini-malani-interview-the-future-is-female-there-is-no-other-way-fundacio-joan-miro-national-gallery-london |access-date=2022-06-02 |website=www.studiointernational.com}}</ref>

Her works have been exhibited at ‘Modern and Contemporary Indian Art’ at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2006; 'Progressive to Altermodern: 62 Years of Indian Modern Art' at [[Grosvenor Gallery|Grosvenor Gallery, London]], 2009; 'Kalpana: Figurative Art in India' presented by the [[Indian Council for Cultural Relations|Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)]] at Aicon Gallery, London, 2009; 'The Root of Everything' at Gallery Mementos, [[Bangalore]], 2009.<ref name=":0" />

Her recent and select solo exhibitions include Work on Paper at Vadehra Art Gallery, 2016.<ref name=":0" />{{failed verification| date= May 2022}}

Singh's work was included in the 2021 exhibition ''[[Women in Abstraction]]'' at the [[Centre Pompidou]].<ref name="Women in abstraction">{{cite book |title=Women in abstraction |date=2021 |publisher=Thames & Hudson Ltd.; Thames & Hudson Inc |location=London : New York, New York |isbn=978-0500094372 |pages=170}}</ref> Her work was also included in the 2022 exhibition ''Women Painting Women'' at the [[Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth]].<ref name="Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth">{{cite web |title=Women Painting Women |url=https://www.themodern.org/exhibition/women-painting-women |website=Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth |access-date=16 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Style ===
Arpita Singh's early paintings were mainly water colors on paper. She would paint usually in black and white ink.<ref name="Milford-Lutzker">Milford-Lutzker, Mary-Ann, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/777857 "Intersections: Urban and Village Art in India"], jstor.org; accessed 6 February 2018.</ref>

By the 80s, she started to paint Bengali folk paintings with women as the focus. She would use vibrant colors in a rather restrained way and her palette is usually dominated by pinks and blues.<ref name=":0" /> Her paintings would show women doing daily work and following simple routines in their lives.<ref name="ContemporaryWomenArtists">Contemporary Women Artists. St.James Press, 1999.</ref> Arpita would draw daily use objects like trees, flowers, flower vases, animals, teapots, pillows, festoons and flags, and show women surrounded by them. Child Bride with Swan (1985) and Girl Smoking Cigarette (1985) are examples of her protagonists, leading uncomplicated lives and deaths.<ref name=":2" />

In the 90s, Arpita's style of painting shifted to oil on canvas, but she continued to paint women-centric art. A lot of women emotions started to become evident in her paintings - Joy, sorrow, hope, and many more. She painted a series of paintings on the subject "Women with a Girl Child" in the last decade of 20th century.<ref name=":1" /> Arpita would showcase the problems like hatred, social injustice, etc. faced by a contemporary woman in her art. She would also paint around the ills related to girl child in India. In some of her paintings the women appear nude, but her paintings do not have sexual overtones and reflect the woman's vulnerability.<ref name=":2" />

==Reception==

=== Awards ===
Arpita Singh has exhibited all over the world, at both individual and group exhibits. She has also won a number of awards for her work.<ref name="Profile">[http://www.contemporaryindianart.com/arpita_singh.htm Arpita Singh profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223092040/http://www.contemporaryindianart.com/arpita_singh.htm |date=2007-12-23 }}, contemporaryindianart.com; accessed 6 February 2018.</ref> Those include:

* 2014 - [[List of Lalit Kala Akademi fellows|Fellowship of Lalit Kala Akademi]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/voices/between-the-poetic-and-the-visual|title=Between the Poetic And the Visual|website=OPEN Magazine|date=25 November 2015 |language=en|access-date=2019-03-12}}</ref>
* 2011 - [[Padma Bhushan]]
* 1998-1999: [[Kalidas Samman]], Bhopal<ref name="Talwar">{{Cite web |url=http://talwargallery.com/arpita-bio/ |title=Arpita Singh |publisher=Talwar Gallery |access-date=2018-03-30}}</ref>
* 1991 - Parishad Samman, [[Sahitya Kala Parishad]], [[New Delhi]]<ref name="Profile" />
*Singh is listed in Hurun India 2025 Women Leaders.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hurun India list: Meet the top-ranked woman leader with her co's valuation at Rs 3,81,700 cr. Who else made to the list? |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/hurun-india-list-meet-the-top-ranked-woman-leader-with-her-cos-valuation-at-rs-381700-cr-who-else-made-to-the-list/articleshow/121616667.cms |website=The Economic Times |date=4 June 2025}}</ref>

==Publications==
2018: ''Arpita Singh: Tying down time,'' Talwar Gallery <ref>Datta, Ella: Talwar, Deepak: Singh, Arpita ''[https://talwargallery.com/tying/ Arpita Singh: Tying down time]'' (1st ed.). Talwar Gallery

{{ISBN|978-81-936663-1-9}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Arpita Singh}}
*[http://www.artnet.com/artists/arpita-singh/ Arpita Singh] at [[Artnet.com]]
*[https://www.dictionnaire-creatrices.com/fiche-arpita-singh Arpita Singh] at {{ill|Dictionnaire-Creatrices|fr|Dictionnaire universel des créatrices}}
*[https://www.ledelarge.fr/16509_artiste_SINGH_Arpita Arpita Singh] at {{ill|Le Delarge|fr}}
*[https://doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00170196 Arpita Singh] at the [[Benezit Dictionary of Artists]]
*[https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/watch/arpita-singh-of-stories-untold/article26148526.ece Arpita Singh: Of stories untold], [[The Hindu Businessline]]
*[https://scroll.in/magazine/836057/how-a-brief-interlude-of-abstract-art-transformed-the-career-of-the-legendary-arpita-singh How a brief interlude of abstract art transformed the career of the legendary Arpita Singh], [[Scroll.in]]

{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 2010–19}}{{Fellows of the Lalit Kala Akademi|state=collapsed}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Arpita}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Bengali people]]
[[Category:Indian women contemporary artists]]
[[Category:Indian contemporary painters]]
[[Category:Painters from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts]]
[[Category:Women artists from West Bengal]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian painters]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Lalit Kala Akademi]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women painters]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian women painters]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian painters]]

Arpita Singh - Revision history

NatishaMooring9 at 05:48, 6 February 2026