‘B.Prabha - From the Album’

‘B.Prabha - From the Album’, a selection of works by the late artist, will be on display at The Viewing Room, Mumbai (April-May 2011).

Charting out her career, a press release mentions: "Born in the village of Bela, near Nagpur in Maharashtra in 1933, she studied at the Nagpur School of Art before moving to Mumbai to complete her graduation from the Sir J. J. School of Art. This is also where she first met artist and sculptor B. Vithal whom she later married in the year 1956. She came to Mumbai as a struggling artist, with a few rupees in her pocket and initially sold some pieces of jewelry to earn some money.

She started working at a time when India had few women artists; her inspiration was Amrita Shergil. She was moved by the lives of rural women, and over time, they became the main theme of her work. She began to experiment and moved from modern abstract forms to more decorative watercolors. Her paintings cover a wide range of subjects, from landscapes to social issues like droughts, hunger and homelessness.

Her first exhibition, while she was still a student was the start of a long and successful career as three of her paintings were acquired by eminent Indian scientist Homi J. Bhabha. Since then, her works were shown in over 50 exhibitions in India and abroad. In 1993, her solo show ‘Shradhanjali’ in Mumbai was dedicated to her late husband B. Vithal.

She received several prestigious awards. Her works find place in a number of important collections like the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi, reminding of her verve and vivaciousness as a highly talented artist. A significant component of the artist’s sensitive body of work was her sincere attempt to immortalize the plight of women in her country.

On her canvases, she immortalized the fisherwomen of Mumbai.B. Prabha’s graceful elongated figures of pensive rural women, with each canvas in a single dominant color still continue to mesmerize art lovers.

(Information courtesy: The Viewing Room)