An Encounter With Arpita Singh’s Drawings

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For someone who didn’t even know that art could be learnt in schools, Arpita Singh has truly come a long way. The acclaimed septuagenarian artist’s latest show presents 45 sketch books and close to 60 drawings and watercolours, created in the past 25 years. From pencil sketches and quirky paintings, the collection of artworks from the creator’s collection are a delight at every view. As the press note for the show says, ‘These drawing books and paintings date to the ’90s, and lead us back into her work, with a kind of spiral intent, like a returning memory’.

5 Questions with the artist, Arpita Singh

1. Artistic Motivations “The life I see around me. It could be an object or a situation…anything around me. I transform and incorporate it into my artworks.”
2. Inspirations “After school, my principal sent me to art college. She’s the one who inspired me to pursue it and that’s how it all began. I always have an urge to create art.”
3. On the wall at home “Picasso and Lucian Freud, I would also love to have the works of Benode Bihari Mukherjee, Rabindranath Tagore, Tyeb Mehta, F N Souza and the masters like Van Gogh.”
4. Concerns that find a place in your art “The social and political environment of the world, and the feelings of insecurity and arrogance people have. I think that creeps into my art in some way or the other.”
5. If not an artist, you would be… “I don’t know! I like music and literature so maybe something in one of those fields, but I haven’t really thought about it.”

Arpita Singh – Works from 1990-2015 is on display at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (D-40 Defence Colony) until December 2, 2015.