Shobha Broota

Shobha Broota (born 1943, New Delhi) trained as a classical Indian vocalist before studying fine art, and it's no wonder that her art “aspires to the condition of music", to borrow the words of Victorian essayist Walter Pater. Like our classical raagas, Broota's canvases have a tranquility and deceptive simplicity. Her abstract forms allow for meditative reverie untethered to the confines of narrative, her lines have rhythm and subtle movement, her colours, a rich resonance, and her surfaces a texture that is complex, yet moving. In a long and celebrated career, Broota has worked in several genres – from the early portraits, to woodcuts and etchings in the '70s and '80s, to the more recent oil and acrylic paintings, and 'relief' works where fabric, thread, silk, or wool – sometimes hand- knitted – is stretched across the canvas to create intricate grids and patterns.