Arpita Singh, Arpana Caur, Shakila

Art and especially decorative art is an important part of Indian culture. In traditional Indian society the role of decorating houses and premises for festivals, etc is played by women. Most of Indian Folk Art forms like Madhubani, Warli and Banni Art are creations of women artists.

However history shows very few women in the field of fine arts. In the late 19^th century one comes across one woman artists among the Bengal School painters: Sunayani Devi. Belonging to the Tagore family, she had the advantage of learning Art form such artists like Abanindranath Tagore himself. But in style and expression she was quite different.

Sunayani Devi

Another woman artist of the time was Amrita Shergil. Immensely talented, she had created a huge volume of art works by the time he was only 28. Her works show colorful women drawn in realist and impressionist styles sometimes with erotic overtones.

Amrita Shergill

In contemporary India, there are many women painters who are drawing a lot of attention. The most well known among them is Anjolie Ela Menon. Her style infuses realistic elements with the surrealist and abstract. Other artists of the 21st century India includes Arpita Singh, Madhvi Parekh, Arpana Caur, Anju Dodia and collagist Shakila

Anjolie Ela Menon