Six decades of art

From January 30 to June 30, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is hosting the first ever retrospective of Arpita Singh. Born in 1937 in Baranagar, West Bengal, Singh moved to Kolkata and, subsequently, to Delhi where she witnessed both the Independence movement as well as the communal violence that followed. She completed a diploma in Fine Arts from the Delhi Polytechnic in 1959, studying under teachers like Jaya Appasamy, B.C. Sanyal, Biren De and Sailoz Mookherjea. Singh’s early practice was marked by a sense of community with her peersshe co-founded the artists’ group The Unknowns’, which had its first exhibition in 1960 and also worked with the Weaver’s Service Centre with textile crafts traditions across India. Singh’s first solo show was held in 1972. Her work has been shown internationally and at festivals throughout India in the 1980s, including a major exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1986.

8 February 2019