Lalitha Lajmi Indian, 1932 to 2023

Lalitha Lajmi was born in Kolkata in 1932 to a poet father and a writer mother, and her family later moved to Mumbai, where her elder brother Guru Dutt became a celebrated filmmaker. Largely self taught, she began practising art while working as an art teacher, took part in an exhibition of the Progressive Artists Group in 1960 and held her first solo show in 1961 under the guidance of her mentor K H Ara. A painter and printmaker working in oils, watercolours and etchings, she often explored the hidden tensions between men and women and the roles they play, with assertive, autobiographical women at the centre. The National Gallery of Modern Art called her an unparalleled watercolourist. Her retrospective, Mind's Cupboards, opened at NGMA Mumbai in January 2023, a month before her death. Her work is held by NGMA, the CSMVS Museum and the British Museum.