Arpana Caur

Arpana Caur, born in Delhi in 1954, is an Indian contemporary painter and graphic artist known for exploring themes of women’s lives, violence, the environment, spirituality, and the cycles of life and death. Largely self-taught in painting, she earned a Master’s degree in Literature from the University of Delhi and later trained in etching at Garhi Studios, New Delhi. Influenced by Punjabi literature, folk traditions, and Indian miniature styles, Caur incorporates motifs, myths, and stories into her paintings and sculptures. Clothing and scissors are recurring motifs in her work, while nature and human figures play an important role in her visual storytelling. In the 1990s, she collaborated with Warli and Godna folk artists. In 1995, she created Tears from Hiroshima for the Hiroshima Museum of Modern Art.