The Indian artist Arpita Singh has lived a turbulent life. She was born in Baranagar in 1937, 10 years before India won independence from England, and lived through states of national emergency and internal unrest. At 18, Singh began painting. As her work evolved, she channeled her emotions into sometimes ominous compositions filled with vertically stacked images—Buddhists carrying guns, Muslim women, turtles, blossoms. This carnival of images often creates a storyline. Now 87, Singh is receiving her first major U.K. exhibition, the flower of an extraordinary career. —Elena Clavarino