Indian Women Artists

Amrita Sher-Gil (30 January 1913, - 5 December 1941), was an eminent Indian painter born to a Punjabi Sikh father and a Hungarian Jewish mother, sometimes known as India's Frida Kahlo, and today considered an important woman painter of 20th century India, whose legacy stands at par with that of the Masters of Bengal Renaissance; she is also the 'most expensive' woman painter of India.

South Indian Villages Going to Market, 1937

Anjolie Ela Menon (born 1940) is one of India's leading contemporary female artists. Her paintings are in several major collections. Most recently (2006), a major work "Yatra" was acquired by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, California. Her preferred medium is oil on masonite, though she has also worked in other media, including glass and water colour.

The Magician Story, Oil on Masonite, 1995

Anupam Sud (1944-present) is an artist who lives and works in Mandi, a small community on the outskirts of New Delhi. Coming from a conservative family, her choice of an academic career and artistic pursuits over an arranged marriage was both brave and rare. Anupam Sud is one of the finest printmakers among the new generation of artists in India. Although she has taken up painting on large canvases, mostly in acrylic, her intaglio prints still hold their sway over her paintings.

Of Walls, Lithograph, 1982

Arpita Singh is an Indian artist. She was born in West Bengal, India in 1937. Currently she lives in Nizamuddin East, New Delhi. Arpita Singh is one of the few women artists in Delhi who do not make a virtue of 'feminism' as the only criterion for artistic achievement.

Red feminine tale, Acrylic on acrylic sheet, 1995

Bharti Kher (born 1969) is an Indian contemporary artist. Her work encompasses painting, sculpture and installation, often incorporating bindis, the popular forehead decoration worn by women in India, in her work. Kher’s works are radically heterogeneous. Sculptures she has made since the mid-2000s combine animal with human body parts to create hybrid female figures that confront the viewer with a compelling mixture of sexuality and monstrosity. In contrast, her bindi ‘paintings’ are abstract and aesthetic.

Symphony,digital art, 2012

B. Prabha (1933-2001) was a major Indian artist who worked mainly in oil, in an instantly recognizable style. She is best known for graceful elongated figures of pensive rural women, with each canvas in a single dominant color.
She said "It is my aim to paint the trauma and tragedy of women."

To the Well

Burman was brought-up in France. She initially trained as an architect, but found the profession too restrictive and turned her hand to painting. She works mainly in pen and ink, and watercolor. This spontaneous media encourages her to create series of works, because overworking or reworking each painting with new ideas is difficult.

Afternoon Game

Dayanita Singh (born 1961, New Delhi) is an Indian photographic artist. In 2013, she became the first Indian to have a solo show at London's Hayward Gallery. Singh studied visual communications from 1980 to 1986 at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, and photojournalism in 1987 and 1988 at the International Center of Photography in New York.

Gogi Saroj Pal (Born in Neoli, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1945) is an eminent Indian artist. She works in many media, including gouache, oil, ceramic and weaving. Her works usually have women as their subject, and many of her paintings have a fantastical element that still comments on the female condition.

Swaymbram, Gouache on Paper, 1995

Hema Upadhyay (born 1972 in Baroda, India) is an Indian artist who has lived and worked in Mumbai, India since 1998. She uses photography and sculptural installations to explore notions of dislocation and nostalgia.

Think left, think right, think low, think tight, 2010, Aichi Triennial, Nagoya, Japan & Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2011

Pimpalkhare was born in Pune, Maharashtra. She says "I like to paint the human body in an abstract form. A modernistic approach in handling my medium gives me more freedom of expression. My subject gives me endless opportunities to create new compositions and helps me to bring out all the beauty which the body represents. The ultimate form of creation, of life force and energy."

Fire, oil on canvas

Prafulla Dahanukar (Jan 1, 1934- 1 March 2014) is an award-winning Indian painter. She was born in Goa and raised in Mumbai. She completed 50 years of her career as a painter in 2007. Prafulla used her artistic talent in creating murals in ceramic, wood and glass. These murals adorn many prominent buildings in Mumbai, Pilani, Kolkata and Muscat (Oman).

Eternal Space

Reema Bansal is an Indian painter. Bansal took up painting at the age of three when she was encouraged by her family and enthused by her teachers. She persisted with the brush despite her neuropathy - a disease which entails weakening of hands, arms, feet and legs. She has many awards and certificates to her credit obtained from various drawing and painting competitions.

Miles To Go

Reena Saini Kallat (born 1973, Delhi, India) graduated with a B.F.A. in painting. Her practice – spanning painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation, often incorporates multiple mediums into a single work. She frequently works with officially recorded or registered names of people, objects, and monuments that are lost or have disappeared without a trace, only to get listed as anonymous and forgotten statistics.

Reena Kallat’s installation,“Untitled (Cobwebs/Crossings)” at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum

Mehra is a self-taught artist with a social conscience, who has had 11 solo shows of her paintings, reliefs and sculptures. She is a poet, painter, sculptor, freelance newspaper writer and a columnist for the Indian Express.