Arpita Singh Biography 
Arpita Singh is a noted painter and artist who hails from West Bengal. One of the leading female artists of the country at present, she was honoured by Padma Bhushan by Government of India in 2011. She is one among those rare artists who do not make a virtue of 'feminism' as the only criterion for artistic achievement. Parishad Samman by Sahitya Kala Parishad, New Delhi in 1991 and Algeria Biennial, Algeria in 1987 are other major honours received by her. ‘Woman’ is the main subject of her portraits.
She was born in West Bengal in 1937. She completed her art studies from School of Art, Delhi Polytechnic in New Delhi in the year 1959 and later she permanently settled in Delhi. She married Paramjit Singh, an artist and a painter and the couple has one daughter - Anjum Singh who is also an artist. After graduation she worked in Indian Government's Cottage Industries Restoration Program, where she came into contact with traditional artists and weavers, which influenced her works a lot.
She rose to prominence by the mid-1970s. Between 1973 and 1993, Arpita had 12 solo shows in New Delhi, Bombay, Amsterdam and many other foreign cities. In the 1970s she mainly painted black and white abstracts, and with the 1980s she got drawn towards Bengali folk paintings, and she chose ‘woman’ as main theme. In 1990s she moved to oil painting. She painted woman's vulnerability through many of her nude paintings. She portrayed women’s view on life in India as well.
One of the most valued Indian painters at present, her work titled, ‘Wish Dreams’ comprising of 16 individual painting was sold for 9.6 crore Indian rupees in 2010. She didn’t return her ‘Padma Bhushan’ as a mark of respect for Manmohan Singh. She currently lives in Nizamuddin East, New Delhi.
Published: N/A
Updated: July 09, 2016
