Suzanne Valadon was a French painter who was born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She was also the mother of painter Maurice Utrillo.
Anjolie Ela Menon is one of India's leading contemporary artists. Her paintings are in several major collections, including the NGMA, the Chandigarh Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum. In 2006, her triptych work "Yatra" was acquired by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, California. Other works also been a part of group exhibitions including 'Kalpana: Figurative Art in India', presented by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in London's Aicon Gallery in 2009. Her preferred medium is oil on masonite, though she has also worked in other media, including Murano glass, computer graphics and water colour. She is a well known muralist. She was awarded the Padma Shree in 2000. She lives and works in New Delhi.
Pan Yuliang, born as Chen Xiuqing, also known as Zhang Yuliang (張玉良), is remembered as the first woman in China to paint in the Western style. She studied in Shanghai and Paris, and taught at the École des Beaux Arts. In 1985, much of her work was transported to China, and collected by the National Art Museum in Beijing and the Anhui Museum in Hefei. Despite being remembered for introducing Western paintings to China, she also provided a new lens to how women were seen through her paintings, not just as objects but as subjects. She won several awards for her work and exhibited internationally in Europe, the United States, and Japan. Significant paintings, sculptures, and prints by her are still conserved in France in the collection of the Cernuschi museum. Her life as an artist has been portrayed in novels, films, and operas in China and the United States. Her art evolved within the flux of conflicting dichotomies of East and West, tradition and modernity, male chauvinism and emerging feminism. Pan is also remembered as an artist who engaged with labels, such as "contemporary/modern," "Chinese," and "woman" artist, while also questioning them.
Sayed Haider Raza was an Indian painter who lived and worked in France for most of his career. Born on 22 February 1922 in Kakkaiya, Central Provinces, British India, Raza moved to France in 1950, marrying the French artist Janine Mongillat in 1959. Following her death from cancer in 2002, Raza returned to India in 2010, where he would live until his death on 28 July 2016.
Prerana Deshpande is a recognized Indian exponent of Kathak dance.
Ratan Shastri, also called Ratandevi Shastri, was founder of Banasthali Vidyapith and a notable champion of women education. She was a notable woman freedom fighter of Rajputana and wife of Hiralal Shastri, first Chief Minister of Rajasthan. She was a recipient of Padma Shri in 1955, Padma Bhushan in 1975, and Jamnalal Bajaj Award for outstanding contribution in the field of uplift and welfare of women and children in 1990. Ratan Shastri was a strong pillar of Parajamandal Movement in Jaipur state during the Indian national Movement. She was a champion of female education and started a women's school, that later developed into a university, that contributed immensely to encourage and support female education in Rajasthan. She was a staunch adherent of Gandhian ideals and promoted Khadi.
Jimmie Bob Durham was an American sculptor, essayist and poet. He was active in the United States in the civil rights movements of African Americans and Native Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, serving on the central council of the American Indian Movement (AIM). He returned to working at art while living in New York City. His work has been extensively exhibited. Durham also received the Günther-Peill-Preis (2003), the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award (2017), and the 58th Venice Biennale's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement (2019).
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century.
Hema Upadhyay was an Indian visual artist, based in Mumbai. She was known for photography and sculptural installations. She was active from 1998 until her death in 2015.
Ethel Carrick, later Ethel Carrick Fox was an English Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter. Much of her career was spent in France and in Australia, where she was associated with the movement known as the Heidelberg School.
Nadia Myre is a contemporary visual artist from Quebec and an Algonquin member of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg First Nation, who lives and works in Montreal. For over a decade, her multi-disciplinary practice has been inspired by participant involvement as well as recurring themes of identity, language, longing and loss. Of the artist, Canadian Art Magazine writes, "Nadia Myre’s work weaves together complex histories of Aboriginal identity, nationhood, memory and handicraft, using beadwork techniques to craft exquisite and laborious works."
Jangarh Singh Shyam (1962–2001) was a pioneering contemporary Indian artist credited with being the creator of a new school of Indian art called Jangarh Kalam. His work has been exhibited widely the world over including Bhopal, Delhi, Tokyo and New York. His most notable exhibitions include the Magiciens de la terre in Paris (1989) and Other Masters curated by Jyotindra Jain at the Crafts Museum, New Delhi (1998). His 1988 piece Landscape with Spider sold for $31,250 at Sotheby's, New York, in 2010—a first for an adivasi artist. Jangarh had also painted the interiors of the Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, the Vidhan Bhavan, and the dome of Bhopal's Bharat Bhavan—one of the most prestigious museums of tribal and contemporary Indian art. He was among the first Gond artists to use paper and canvas for his paintings, thereby inaugurating what is now known as Jangarh Kalam.
Shobha Deepak Singh is an Indian cultural impresario, photographer, writer, classical dancer and the director of Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, a Delhi-based cultural organization which promotes music and performing arts, through its schools and stage shows. She is known for her contributions for the revival of Mayurbhanj Chhau, a tribal martial dance form from Odisha. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 1999, for her contributions to Arts and culture.
Gopal Swami Khetanchi is an Indian painter based in Jaipur. Hailing from an artistic family in north Rajasthan, Khetanchi studied fine art in Jaipur and worked for some time as an assistant art director in Bollywood and an illustrator for magazines, before returning to Rajasthan to focus on painting.
André Arbus (1903-1969) was a French furniture designer, sculptor and architect. He was a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and one of his buildings is listed as an official historical monument. He was the recipient of the silver medal at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, and the 1934 Prix Blumenthal.
Lado Bai is a tribal artist from the Bhil tribe of Madhya Pradesh. Her work has been showcased in various exhibitions in India, France and the UK.
Louise-Adéone Drölling, also known as Madame Joubert was a French painter and draughtswoman. Both her father, Martin Drolling, and her older brother, Michel Martin Drolling, were celebrated artists in their day.
Tejal Shah is an Indian contemporary visual artist and curator. She works within the mediums of video art, photography, performance, drawing, sound work, and spatial installations. Shah explores topics in her work including the LGBTQ+ community, sexuality, gender, disability, and the relationship between humans and nature. She lives in Mumbai.
Simone Boisecq was a French sculptor who worked in Algiers and Paris. Her work has been described as a synthesis between abstraction and figuration.
Chandramani Singh was an Indian art historian, textile expert, writer and a museum archivist based in Jaipur, Rajasthan. As a writer, Singh had edited and authored numerous works on museums, culture, and heritage. Her notable works include Jaipur Rajya ka Itihas, Art Treasures of Rajasthan, Performing Arts of Rajasthan: Lok-Rang, and Protected Monuments of Rajasthan among others. She was associated with Banaras Hindu University, the Sawai Mansingh II City Palace Museum and Jawahar Kala Kendra. She had also worked for the restoration of the Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur. She died in 2022 after a prolonged illness.
