Important Notice

Lot 83

 

Quick Zoom

Meticulously constructing her canvases out of thick layers of oil paint, which she then manipulates to expose a diversity of subjects and motifs, Arpita Singh unites subject and process to bestow her works with several strata of meaning. “Memories and mappings of dislocations and discoveries, of nostalgia and pain, of excitement and anxiety have surged through her images. But Arpita Singh also responds to other dynamics in the world, to the... Meticulously constructing her canvases out of thick layers of oil paint, which she then manipulates to expose a diversity of subjects and motifs, Arpita Singh unites subject and process to bestow her works with several strata of meaning. “Memories and mappings of dislocations and discoveries, of nostalgia and pain, of excitement and anxiety have surged through her images. But Arpita Singh also responds to other dynamics in the world, to the interface between time and space, between history and present context. In fact, she absorbs the complexities of the world and represents them in her own distinctive way through the sensuous use of paint and brush, signaling joy, wonder, menace and melancholy in an intricate kaleidoscope of human emotions” (Ella Datta, “Of History, Context and Location”, Arpita Singh: Picture Postcard 2003-2006, Vadehra Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, New Delhi, 2006, p. 1).

Like Singh’s more recent canvases, in which the artist has reacted to the genocidal acts that unfolded in Gujarat in 2002, in the present lot from 1991 titled Threat, violence also plays a central role. Painted at the time that the Gulf War was being waged, this piece draws on the figure of the distressed widow, bundled in white, to express Singh’s horror at the atrocities of war and the personal losses suffered as a result.

Singh’s pictures are “…feminine fables. They are about the body but not only in the familial sphere in that images of prone female figures targeted by gun-toting hoodlums must allude to the fragility of the body politic, especially in view of the widespread inter-religious violence that has wracked India over the last decade” (Deepak Ananth, “Feminine Fables”, Memory Jars, Bose Pacia Modern exhibition catalogue, New York, 2003, not paginated).

Below the three seated women, two male bodies lie awkwardly on a blue ground, representative, perhaps, of the sons, brothers and husbands whose loss they grieve. Even as the indistinct feminine mass mourns, Singh notes that the violence continues, unheeding of personal loss and tragedies. Advancing across the surface from the right margin, figures in army fatigues intrude on the private anguish of the women. Their menacing presence, like that of the blue-gloved boxer floating above them, highlights the increasing pervasiveness of violence in contemporary society.

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site