Arpana Caur (B. 1954, Delhi, India) is one of India’s leading contemporary artists, with works on display in Brooklyn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum London,  MOCA L.A, and Museums of Modern Art in Delhi, Mumbai, Dusseldorf, Stockholm, and Singapore. Caur’s work often centers the status of women and girls in Indian society. 

 

Caur holds a Master of Arts in Literature from the University of New Delhi, and while mainly self-taught in painting, also received training in the etching technique at the Garhi Studios in New Delhi in 1982. 

 

Caur comes from a Sikh family who fled the Pakistani West Punjab to the Republic of India in 1947 during the partition. Her mother is a writer and exposed her to many different art forms as a child, of which painting was her favorite. Caur has since created work in many different mediums, including murals, oil paintings, installations, paperwork, sculptures, and book illustrations. Her first painting, “Mother and Daughter,” was influenced by Amrita Sher-Gil, an influential contemporary, female, avant-garde artist. She also draws from Punjabi literature and Indian folk art, and touches on gender, race, environment, violence, life, and death in her work. 

 

In an interview with Yashodhara Dalmia, when asked if she called herself a 'feminist', Caur immediately replied with a resounding 'no,' explaining that the themes she incorporates or is curious about go beyond gender, and are ones that every human is faced with.