Modernist Artist Arpita Singh Dies at 89 in New Delhi

Modernist artist Arpita Singh died on Monday at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi from age-related ailments, her husband, artist Paramjit Singh, told the Press Trust of India (PTI). She was 89.

Paramjit Singh said she had lived with heart and lung problems for some years but had kept working. "She had heart and lung related issues for some years now. However, she was actively working. Her health dipped in the last three days and was admitted to the hospital," he told PTI.

The Hindu also reported Singh's death on Monday. Hindustan Times reported that she died on Monday morning in New Delhi and said the art world paid tribute to her wit, curiosity and imagination.

A painter of women's lives

Singh was widely known for her detailed figurative works. Her paintings generally centred on a female figure and reflected the social upheaval and humanitarian crises of her times. Hindustan Times noted that her canvases depicted women's lives and drew on Indian miniature painting and folk traditions. Around her figures she placed everyday objects: flowers, animals, teapots, pillows and flags. Her palette leaned on pinks and blues, used with restraint.

Art curator Uma Nair called Singh the "high priestess of contemporary Indian art" in a tribute reported by PTI. Nair wrote that Singh's early work at the Weavers Centre gave her an imagery tied to textiles, and that she balanced human figures with largely abstract compositions held together by contour. Poet Ashok Vajpeyi, managing trustee of the Raza Foundation, wrote that her vision ranged from contemporary violence to the celebration of life in many shades, and called her death a huge loss for Indian culture.

Honours and career

Singh received the Padma Bhushan in 2011 and the Fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 2014. The photograph with this article shows the fellowship being conferred on her in New Delhi on October 10, 2014.

She was born Arpita Dutta on June 22, 1937, in Baranagar, in the Bengal Presidency, now in West Bengal. She left the city with her mother and brother in 1946. She attended Delhi Polytechnic from 1954 to 1959 and graduated with a diploma in fine arts. After graduating, she worked at the Weavers Service Centre in New Delhi, where close contact with textiles and weavers shaped her later painting. She was a founder member of the artists group The Unknown, which held its first group show in New Delhi in 1962, the year she married Paramjit Singh. Her first exhibition was held at the Kunika Chemould Gallery in New Delhi in 1972. Her work was later shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1982 and at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1986. The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi held a retrospective covering six decades of her painting in 2019, and her work was shown at the Serpentine Galleries in London in 2025.

Family

Singh is survived by her husband. Their only daughter, artist Anjum Singh, died in 2020 from cancer. PTI reported that her cremation was scheduled for 2 pm at the Lodhi Crematorium on Sunday.