B. Prabha was born in a village near Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra and first trained at the Nagpur School of Art before moving to the J. J. School of Art in Bombay (now Mumbai), a city in which she would settle with her husband, the artist B. Vitthal. Female characters recur throughout Prabha’s paintings. Intimate in tone, the scenes she depicts are often set in everyday rural contexts. Among these, Waiting offers a striking rendition for its daring use of green. Its intense, emerald shade, worked in oil paint, merges background, flora, and the loincloth of the female figure. Time seems suspended as a result. In a slight three- quarter pose, the figure ostensibly turns the back of her slender, elongated, and half-naked body to the viewer. Staring into the distance, her left profile reveals refined features but also a saddened gaze, that of the woman waiting. The hypnotic character of the painting derives from this tension between the bold use of colour and the modesty and dignity of the solitary figure.
This is the first time the work of B. Prabha is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Devika Singh
