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Arpita Singh was born in West Bengal, India in 1937.
She received her diploma in Fine Arts at the Delhi Polytechnic before taking up the job of a designer at the Weaver's Service Centres in Kolkata and New Delhi.
After she graduated she worked for the Indian Government's Cottage Industries Restoration Program. While she worked in the program she met traditional artists and weavers in India. This is said to have impacted her artwork.
She began her career as an abstract artist, then switched to painting folkloric scenes of daily life in Bengal before settling on the enigmatic, quasi-narrative mode that has become her signature.
Her past paintings have been centered around figures of women, often in domestic situations fraught with undefined conflict.
Her work has been read as topical, reflecting India’s sectarian wars, its violence toward women.
Since her first solo exhibition in 1972 at Kunika Chemould Gallery, New Delhi, Singh’s work has been featured regularly in shows of Indian art held in the country and internationally

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Her main focus was to show the position of women in India. Most of her painting include indian women and what they do in their daily lives.

This a painting named “Evening Walk” showed the images of men, who are walking and some motor cycles are entering right into the upper frame of the picture.

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In the painting, she represented nine male images uniformly draped in white suits and black coats, looking profile. The figures are walking in the same direction putting one hand in the pocket of their coat.
The images are perfectly representing a stereotyped behavior of men (in general), what they are used to inherit from the society as the legitimate right of men. Arpita showed a diagram of an unknown map lying under the feet of the walking men; it created a metaphor of state or country that is ruled by the power of men.
These two pictures are carrying a typical profile look of man that may signify another patriarchal construction. Here all men are looking at same direction without having any pre planned understanding. This is how men grew up with the spontaneous knowledge of watching women and they became used to with this construction.
This shows that women had no right in the society and were only supposed to do whatever men commanded.

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This painting by Arpita Singh shows how women in India are supposed to do all the household work and at the same time take care of the children while men can just rest or go out and enjoy.
She showed two women who are doing household work while five men where one is taking rest, two are just talking, and the other two are in the car going somewhere.
This, again, represents patriarchal construction. This is how men are raised in India. Girls are always told to learn how to cook and take care of the family whereas boys are encouraged to study so they can financially take care of the family.

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This painting of hers represents the male gaze.
She showed how the two men had a binocular in their hands and were gazing towards women.
This was the life of a typical women in india and also any other country during ancient times.
The women are not looking towards men which shows that they were not there to please men.

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Nilima Sheikh

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Nilima Sheikh was born in 1945 in New Delhi.
She studied history at the Delhi University (1962-65) and painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda. (MA Fine, 1971). She has taught painting at the Faculty between 1977 and 1981.
Apart from exhibiting her work in India and internationally, the artist has lectured on Indian art at many venues in India and internationally.
In the year 1984, she painted a series of 12 small, tempera paintings-titled "When Champa Grew Up" that narrated the true story of a married young girl who is tortured, and burnt by her in-laws.

(I couldn’t find the full series in order but I figured some of them so I’ll be showing them in my presentation)

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Champa before marriage

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In the previous slide, Sheikh showed a teenage girl’s life before marriage.
She showed how a girl can be free to do whatever she feels like.
In one of the painting, she showed how the girl was on a bicycle and her mother was doing the household work. This represents that a girl was not only raised to stay home but also live her life freely and achieve her goals.

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Champa’s Marriage

Here, Sheikh showed that the girl is getting married.
She does not look happy which represents that the marriage was probably arranged by her family and not her choice.
She is also looking towards the ground which shows that a girl was not supposed to look in the eyes of her in-laws. She was onlu supposed to do whatever her husband and her in-laws command.

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Champa’s life after marriage

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In the paintings of previous slide, Sheikh showed Champa’s or any other girl’s life after arranged marriage.
In one of the paintings, her in-laws were enjoying their life while she was inside of the house crying and no one even cared to take care of her.
In another painting, champa is showed cooking for everyone while a man is standing in front of her and ready to bit her. This represents the male gaze where a man is commanding and if the women does not follow her instructions then she would be punished. There is also a hand shown in the painting which is pointing at champa which means that person is also commanding her something.

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Champa’s Death

In this painting, Sheikh showed that Champa’s in-laws are burning her.
This was a typical life of an Indian women where once a woman’s need was over, she would be burnt and the husband would marry some other woman for his pleasure.

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I picked this topic because there are still parts in India where women are treated in such ways and I’m glad that my parents do not encourage such activities and I got an opportunity to come to the United Stated and achieve my goals.

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