New Delhi, Nov. 9 -- Modernist artist Arpita Singh, widely known for her detailed figurative works reflective of societal traumas such as war and communalism, died from age-related ailments at a hospital here on Monday. She was 89.
Her husband, artist Paramjit Singh, said she was working almost till the last. "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 she was admitted to Fortis hospital," Paramjit Singh said. Their only daughter Anjum, also an artist, died in 2020 from cancer.
The last rites of Arpita Singh, whose 16-panel "Wish Dream" became the most-valued work by an Indian woman artist when it sold for Rs 9.6 crore at a Saffronart online auction in 2010, were held at the Lodhi Road crematorium in the afternoon.
Born in West Bengal in 1937, Singh moved to Delhi with her family in 1946, just a year before Independence and Partition. She graduated from the School of Art at Delhi Polytechnic in 1959 with a Diploma in Fine Arts.
The six-decade career was marked by works that brought together figuration, abstraction and elements heavily drawn from Bengali folk traditions and Indian stories, creating an oeuvre that had an inimitable style of narrative storytelling. Singh's extensive repertoire generally centred around a female figure, reflecting social upheaval and humanitarian crises of her times.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.