“Art is something that makes women breathe with a different kind of happiness, perceptions, and visions”. If women understood and exercised their power they could remake the world of art.  “Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic of art and gratifying power of reflecting the figure of an artist globally.”

From merely art inspirations, women have become more active in the creative arena by slowly progressing in various fields of arts, fine arts, visual arts, and design to performance arts.

During the period of Ancient India, it is said that “For about three thousand years, the women and only the women of Mithila have been making devotional paintings of the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon. It is no exaggeration, then, to say that this art is the expression of the most genuine aspect of Indian civilization. 

The Medieval Period, intents towards the role of women in art continued throughout the classical European period where women contributed a lot in poetry, music, textiles, and other cultural art performances. The Medieval period saw the emergence of women artists such as Claricia, Diemudus, Ende, Guda, Herrade of Landsberg and Hildegard of Bingen.

The Baroque period marked a large number of women painters taking the self-portrait route, this period is flooded with many impressive self-portraits that elevated fine arts more as this presented a healthy competition against the male artists of this period.

The idea of the woman artist has to be acknowledged deeply and the power of the woman in the field of art and paintings has to be motivated profoundly. Art has always been one of the most widely used mediums for expressing the plight of women in India. Some of the women artists have rendered greatly to the field of art and paintings.

Amrita Sher-Gil The most famous woman artist from India's pre-independence era, Amrita Sher-Gil is responsible for influencing entire generations of painters with her artwork. Born in Hungary, Budapest in 1913 to a Punjabi-Sikh father and a Hungarian mother, Sher-Gil's earlier work was inspired by the European culture and style which she acquired during her residency and education in Paris. Sher-Gil's captivating self-portraits bestowed upon her the title of India's Frida Kahlo. Her return to India in 1934 sparked a thematic change in her artwork, which now incorporated traditional Indian art styles marked by the vivid use of colors and the Renaissance-era 'chiaroscuro' technique, through which she portrayed the culture, despair, and poverty of Indian villagers. Sher-Gil died at the tender age of 28 in Lahore having achieved critical, if not commercial, success. However, her paintings rapidly gained recognition around the world and she is now hailed as one of the most prominent Indian artists of all time.

Arpita Singh, born in 1937, is a contemporary painter who has championed the perspective of women in her work. Using a vibrant color palette dominated by pink and blue hues in her paintings, Singh portrays the everyday problems faced by women in a range of emotions — from suffering and sorrow to joy and hope. Even though her paintings typically revolve around the female form, Singh often incorporates flowers, animals, and inanimate objects to frame the central perspective. Her work ranges from drawings to oil-in-canvas and water-color on paper. Since her first solo exhibition in New Delhi, Singh has participated in numerous solo and group shows across the world in cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, Athens, London, Istanbul, and Belgrade. In 2011, she was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan award for her distinguished contributions to Indian culture and art.

Anjolie Ela Menon a recipient of the Padma Shri award is recognized among India's best contemporary artists, Anjolie Ela Menon has created stunning paintings encompassing myriad themes. Her oil paintings, murals, and glass colors feature themes of religion, self-portraits, and landscapes. Some of Menon's most renowned works, such as 'Shabnam', explore the self-expression of women, revealing their suppressed emotions and sensuality in often varying artistic styles. As she grew older, however, Menon's artistic style evolved continuously as she was determined not to get trapped in a specific category. Menon's artworks have featured at countless exhibitions, the most recent being ‘Menongitis – Three Generations of Art’. Menon has represented the country at numerous international shows and exhibitions; she has also been invited by the British, US, and French governments to confer with leading artists of their countries.

Jayasri Burman is a contemporary painter whose art is a vivid blend of strong feminine themes and mythical elements. Women serve as the fundamental theme of Burman's paintings; she portrays women in fantastical forms representative of their struggles and strengths. At a glance, Burman's paintings can instantly be recognized as having an inherent Indian folk art nature. She is widely recognized as one of India's most talented contemporary painters, and her artwork has been exhibited in some of the world's most prominent cultural hubs including New York, Berlin, London, and Paris.

Shilo Shiv Suleman, International Women Artist Born in 1989 in Singapore, works as an artist whose work focuses on the themes of magical realism, social change, and technology. Suleman began her career as an illustrator. Since then, she has progressed to creating interactive installation art pieces that fuse technology with human presence. She has designed apps that react to brainwaves, sculptures that glow with a person's breath, and installations that synchronize with heartbeats. Suleman's most popular installation — created in collaboration with architects, neuroscientists, and engineers — is called 'Pulse and Bloom'.

Shilpa Gupta being a renowned interdisciplinary contemporary artist, uses sound, video, photography, installations, and performance art as her mediums of expression. Often interactive work that relies on audience participation, her artwork explores a variety of themes that range from consumer culture, desire, and religion to security issues, nationalism, environmental degradation, and human rights. A significant number of her projects, though largely created by technological means themselves, ruminate on the dangers of the widespread technological dependence in today's world. Gupta's work, which has been displayed in myriad galleries (both in India and abroad) has led her to receive the Transmediale Award in Berlin and the Sanskriti Prathisthan award in New Delhi. 

It is clear that the medium utilized by Indian women to create art has evolved with time and technology. When women engage in the economy of the art world everyone benefits worldwide. ‘Women are the real architects of society’. We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women's voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored.