Important Notice

Arpita Singh’s art is an interweaving of the craft of textiles and her own experiences of pain, fear, love and grief. Her idiom employs the intricacy of the Bengali kantha, which she fostered through her years as a designer for the Weavers’ Service Centre, a government agency supporting India’s indigenous textile traditions. Singh had turned to figuration in the 1970s, following years of dealing with abstracts. Her subject matter, often... Arpita Singh’s art is an interweaving of the craft of textiles and her own experiences of pain, fear, love and grief. Her idiom employs the intricacy of the Bengali kantha, which she fostered through her years as a designer for the Weavers’ Service Centre, a government agency supporting India’s indigenous textile traditions. Singh had turned to figuration in the 1970s, following years of dealing with abstracts. Her subject matter, often women-centric, deals with ordinary folk. Her characters are often interspersed with everyday objects which are ornately rendered.

Some of Singh’s works in the 1980s have been responses to major socio-political events. The Sikh riots of 1984 that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi compelled Singh to address the fears and tension in her works of the period: “...men with guns crowd into the margins of the frame and virtually anticipate Arpita’s highly protective images of women in acts of nurturing the girl child” (Gayatri Sinha, “The 1970s—Simultaneous Streams”, Indian Art: An Overview, New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 2003, p133). Singh comments on the abuse of religion and power—which often go in tandem—in this work. The man seems to be a victim lying dead under mysterious circumstances. The enigma is suggested through the use of blue: when considered with the title, it seems symbolic of the death of Lord Krishna, hence a degeneration into an age of darkness. In Hindu mythology, Krishna’s death is believed to have ended the Third Age, Dwapara Yuga, and ushered in Kali Yuga, the Fourth and last age before the destruction of the world. Singh’s positioning of the man—he is splayed supinely on the ground, with only his face visible—reflects the shocking callousness in treatment of the victims.

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