Lalitha Lajmi (1932 - 2023)

Watercolour on Paper

29 x 21 Inches

Signed & Dated Lower Left

Year - 2010

Lalitha Lajmi (1932–2023) was a self-taught artist and printmaker whose creative journey spanned over six decades. Her practice encompassed etching, oils, pen-and-ink drawings and, in her later years, watercolours. Born in Calcutta into a family deeply involved in the arts, her brother was the renowned filmmaker Guru Dutt, her mother a writer, and her father a poet. Her uncle, the artist B. B. Benegal, first introduced her to painting by gifting her a box of colours when she was five. Lajmi studied Commercial Art at the Sir J. J. School of Art in Bombay and later balanced teaching and her own artistic pursuits—often working late into the night in her Lokhandwala home.

Cinema, theatre and performance were recurring influences in her art. “In my works,” she once said, “I have done not only masks but performances inspired by cinema and even real life, because we all don masks in this world of pretend.” The motif of the mask and performance became central to her exploration of human relationships. Her daughter, filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi, also remained a significant presence in her life and work, and the theme of the mother and child appears repeatedly across her oeuvre.

Lajmi began working in watercolours much later in life, moving away from the darker etchings of her early years to gentler, more meditative compositions. Untitled (Women) (2010) belongs to this late period. The quiet poise of the figures and the soft transparency of tone reflect the serenity and restraint that came to define her final decade of painting.

Exhibited: The Mind's Cupboard - A Retrospective of Lalitha Lajmi, 2023. NGMA, Mumbai 

Provenance: The Artist's Estate