Indian painter Arpita Singh dies at 89

Arpita Singh, a painter known for dreamlike, crowded canvases, died on Monday in New Delhi. She was 89, ArtNews reported.

The cause was age-related health complications, according to Indian Express. Roshini Vadehra confirmed the death to the same outlet. Her husband, the artist Paramjit Singh, confirmed it to the Press Trust of India news agency, as The Hindu reported.

Singh was born in 1937 in Baranagar, a town in eastern India, according to the Serpentine Galleries in London. She began to be noticed as an artist in the 1960s. Her paintings mix Surrealism, a style built on dream-like images, with figure painting and the court painting traditions of India.

She drew on Bengali folk art and Indian stories, and her pictures often focus on the emotional and psychological lives of the people in them. Her career spanned six decades. The Serpentine has described her as a pioneering artist of post-independence India, meaning the period after the country gained independence from Britain in 1947.

London audiences got a major look at her work when the Serpentine presented an exhibition called Arpita Singh: Remembering. The Hindu described her as a modernist artist.

Her honours include the Padma Bhushan, one of India's civilian awards and the third-highest in its order of precedence. The Hindu reported the award in its coverage of her death.

Some critics compared her to M F Husain, one of India's best-known modern painters, calling her the female Husain. The Times of India carried that description in its report on her death.

For readers new to her work, the Serpentine exhibition title is the easiest place to start.