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Arpita Singh dies at 89: Art world remembers her wit, wonder and imagination
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Known for vibrant, emotionally rich paintings exploring women’s lives, Singh moved between abstract and figurative styles.
Renowned contemporary artist Arpita Singh, 89, passed away on Monday morning in New Delhi. She was born in 1937 in what is present-day Bangladesh. A graduate of Delhi Polytechnic in 1959, Singh worked with the Cottage Industries Restoration Programme, a government body.
Iconographically dense and vibrantly colourful, Singh’s canvases presented a clear-eyed view of women’s lives. Though her style changed over decades — from monochromatic abstracts to the more colourful Bengali folktale-based paintings — Singh’s works were replete with the emotional inner lives of the characters she depicted.
Singh has been described as both a modernist and a figurative artist. Her canvases deployed the perspective And narrative style found across a range of Indian aesthetics and artistic styles, from miniatures to folk.
Singh won the Padma Bhushan in 2011. She was also the recipient of numerous awards including the Parishad Samman in 1991 and the fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 2014.
“Arpita Singh taught me not to overthink art or life, to find wit and wonder in the smallest things, to stay curious and to always look at the world with a little more humour and imagination. I feel incredibly fortunate to have spent time with her, learnt from her and shared so many special moments with her. The world feels a little less magical without her in it,” said Roshni Vadehra, who worked closely with Singh for her Serpentine gallery exhibition in London in 2025.
“Arpita Singh was a woman of her generation who could not be ignored in a predominantly male domain,” said Dadiba Pundole, Mumbai-based gallerist and auctioneer.
The Delhi-based Vadehra art gallery has represented Singh since 1994.
Singh is survived by her husband, artist Paramjit Singh. Her daughter, Anjum Singh, also an artist, passed away in 2020.
