Prabha Shah

In a Language of her Own


Prabha Shah can claim to have created her own language. Deprived of the gift of hearing, she never quite formed a comprehensive textual vocabulary. Her verbal expressions are laboured. But after almost five decades of unwavering practice in painting, she has forged her own patois within the meta-language of visuals. The language her brush speaks today follows the universal grammar of stones, mortar, glass and water – motifs that keep coming back into her work. Yet, the language is so distinctively toned that it is recognisably her own.

Painting, or rather the urge to express through painting, came out as a life force from within Prabha. Her family members recall how a little-understood young girl, constantly at odds with the world, calmed down all of a sudden when she discovered the world of painting. After initial training in Jaipur, she started depicting the houses, alleys, arches, doors, animals and people of Rajasthan. The colours and variety of visages in Udaipur, where she moved to, greatly influenced her. When the family shifted to the national capital, the humans and animals thinned out and heaped blocks of Delhi suburbia came to dominate. There was one constant through this shifting oeuvre:...