Kavita Singh (b.1964-d.2024) was an art historian, writer, scholar and curator. She specialised in the history of Indian painting, particularly the role played by colonial and religious institutions in shaping the country’s art form. Singh obtained a BA in English literature from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, in 1985 and an MFA in Art History from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara in 1987. She completed her PhD in art history at Panjab University, Chandigarh in 1996. Singh also served as a visiting lecturer at the College of Art, New Delhi, between 1989 and 1991, and taught at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi from 1991 to 1997. She served as the dean of Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of Arts and Aesthetics from 2017 to 2019. She was an art curator at the National Museum and authored and co-authored many books and monographs on Indian art, including New Insights Into Sikh Art (2003), InFlux: Contemporary Art in Asia (2013), No Touching, No Spitting, No Praying: The Museum in South Asia (2014) and Museums, Heritage, Culture: Into the Conflict Zone (2015). A recipient of multiple grants and awards Singh won the prestigious 2018 Infosys Prize for Humanities for her study of Mughal, Rajput, and Deccan art.

About the collection
The papers of Kavita Singh have been donated by her husband Prof. Arunava Sen. It includes papers, handwritten notes and documentation of her own work, material collected as part of her doctoral thesis including large tracings of Phad paintings, detailed photographs of rare 19th-century Pata Chitra paintings from Bengal. The collection also contains photographs and slides of her curatorial work on different international exhibitions and field visits to various heritage sites. Material from Getty Foundation Museum Project Documentation, Edward Binney Collection and 19 th century photographs from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection is also a part of the collection. Newspaper clippings related to her research interest, some rare early 20 th century prints and lithographs, and her teaching resources are also available in the collection. The collection is an invaluable resource for researchers interested in art history, museum and heritage studies.

Donor: Prof. Arunava Sen

Acquisition: 2025