Important Notice

Born in the village of Bela in Maharashtra, B Prabha chose painting over music at an early age and trained formally at the J J School of Art in Bombay. Her work showed great promise even as a student; some were bought by Homi J Bhabha who was instrumental in setting up the TIFR Art Collection.

Prabha arrived at her singular style after a lot of experimentation. It is exemplified in this willowy woman delineated in bold but supple lines... Born in the village of Bela in Maharashtra, B Prabha chose painting over music at an early age and trained formally at the J J School of Art in Bombay. Her work showed great promise even as a student; some were bought by Homi J Bhabha who was instrumental in setting up the TIFR Art Collection.

Prabha arrived at her singular style after a lot of experimentation. It is exemplified in this willowy woman delineated in bold but supple lines that lend grace to the movement of her clothes. The figure carries a pot of water on her head while thatched roofs, often found in rural India, sprawl out behind her. The rural woman was frequently featured in the artist’s work; Prabha found them to be ideal subjects through which to interrogate inequity. She has said, “I have seen many women and even studied them closely. And I have yet to see one happy woman. Women can create beauty. Here I am not just talking about the urban woman but even the women in our rural areas are extremely creative.” (The artist in an interview with Nivedita Jayaram Pawar, “B Prabha, Painter”, YoungBuzz, online) Amrita Sher-Gil, whose oeuvre is remarkable for her sympathetic portraits of rural women of the Subcontinent, profoundly influenced the artist in her early years. This is evident in the sensitivity with which B Prabha portrays the interiority of her subjects.

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