
Priya Singh
Head of Department
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£500 - £700
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Head of Department

Cataloguer
Manisha Patil is a painter and art historian currently serving as Professor of Art History at Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai. Born in Nagpur and raised in Kolkata, her formative years in the city deeply influenced her artistic vocabulary. The vibrant cultural atmosphere of Kolkata along with its Durga Puja and Rath Mela festivals sparked her lasting interest in people and everyday life. Patil began painting at the age of four and has since developed a practice rooted in personal narrative.
Her work is profoundly people-centric, often drawing on autobiographical experiences and domestic environments. She has exhibited widely, including joint exhibitions with Prabhakar Patil at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, as well as at Art Today (New Delhi), Birla Academy of Art and Culture (Kolkata), Nehru Centre (Mumbai), Gallery Articulate (Mumbai), Gallery Vinnyasa (Chennai), and the Korea-Mumbai Biennale.
Patil's visual language is shaped by a range of influences, from the muted palettes and of Ganesh Pyne to the compositional clarity of artists like Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, and David Hockney. She also draws inspiration from Indian miniature painting, particularly the Rajasthani school, which informs her use of stylised forms.
The present lot captures a quiet moment in a rural domestic setting. A solemn young girl occupies the foreground, her steady gaze meeting the viewers directly. Behind her, in a dimly lit interior, a seated woman dressed in vivid red appears absorbed in textile work. The layered brushwork and flattened perspective lend the composition a cinematic, almost folkloric quality. Through this intimate scene, the artist evokes themes of gendered labour and quiet resilience, using the visual language of domesticity.