PREMALYA SINGH - born December 1929 – is a sculptor who lives and works in New Delhi. Her bronze and terracotta sculptures evoke figurative traditions, yet are uncompromisingly spare and contemporary.

 

Even as a child in the North-West Frontier Province, Premalya was interested in art, especially sculpture. After Partition, she went to Kala Bhavan, Shanti Niketan, 1949-51, then studied in what is now the Delhi College of Art. She was fortunate to work under the guidance of some of India’s great modern masters, Nandlal Bose, Ramkinkar Baij, Dhanraj Bhagat, Sudhir Khastagir, BC Sanyal and Biren De – all of whom detested pretentiousness and strove for simplicity and harmony of form.

 

Marriage to a diplomat led to a nomadic life spent in many countries – the Americas, Africa, Europe, South-East and West Asia, where she took the opportunity to study various forms of art, working in the studios of local artists. Where possible, she joined institutes like the Free Academy in The Hague and the Fine Arts Department of New York University.

 

Her work takes simple subjects drawn from life around her, such as boys at play, performers, pilgrims and just people. These beautiful studies are distinct individuals rather than types or symbols. Yet the figures are captured in moments of being – joy, repose and utter self-forgetfulness – that allow them to transcend time and place. Sometimes she draws her inspiration from classical Indian literature such as her series on Geet Govinda, the 12th century poem that celebrates the love of Krishna and Radha. She was moved by the purity and simplicity of the river during a trek to Gangotri and Gaumukh, the source of the Ganga. Another great inspiration is music, pouring from the soul – her figures almost creating the sound.

 

Her work has been described as being `as emotionally condensed as it is artistically rich’. It is unaffected and direct and has great strength in its form and feeling.

 

Singh’s work is in collections at the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi and at many other places across the world. She has been working at the Lalit Kala Studios, Garhi, since 1984.

 

Of herself and her work, she says: I am happiest creating naturally and from my heart and hands just what I feel.