Eminent Indian painter Lalitha Lajmi passes away at 90

With Profound grief and sorrow NGMA, Mumbai shares the news of demise of veteran artist and printmaker Smt. Lalitha Lajmi who left for heavenly abode this morning(13.02.2023).@KrishnaReddyBjp@ArjunRamMeghwal @govindmohan @M_Lekhi #NGMA#artandsoul#ministryofculture pic.twitter.com/Qesm0EaMm0

— NGMA Mumbai (@mumbai_ngma) February 13, 2023

Lajmi was born to a poet father and a poly-linguist writer-mother in Kolkata on October 17 in 1932. She is the sister of film director, producer, and actor, the late Guru Dutt. Since she was coming from a family involved in the arts, Lajmi was very fond of classical dance and painting. Eventually, she took up painting as her profession.

Through her impeccable artworks, she narrated a layered history of the modern Indian woman in the decades that followed the Independence of the country. According to the National Gallery of Modern Art, her works “reflect the hidden tensions that exist between men and women, captured in the different roles they play. Yet, her women are not meek individuals, but assertive and individualistic, with a strong autobiographical element.”

The artist had also given a guest appearance in the 2007 Bollywood film, Taare Zameen Par (Express Archive)

Lajmi started her serious artistic journey as an artist in an exhibition of the Progressive Artists Group in 1960 at the Artist’s Centre Bombay. A year later, she did her first solo show under the guidance of her mentor KH Ara.

Along with the responsibilities and that of an art teacher within a school, she managed her career impeccably well. “Working at night using electrical light, through an interesting use of grisaille and sepia tones, she began making prints that later were to travel to an exhibition, supported by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, that took place simultaneously in West and East Germany in 1983,” according to Gallery of Art and Soul.

Over the decades, Lajmi has held several exhibitions at international art galleries in Paris, London and Holland. Her works are held in the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, the British Museum and CSMVS Museum Bombay. Recently, NGMA presented ‘The Minds cupboard’ – a retrospective of Lajmi’s large body of work on January 12.

The artist had also given a guest appearance in the 2007 Bollywood film, Taare Zameen Par.

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