Mrinalini Mukherjee will be remembered as one of the greatest artists of this generation

It feels terribly unjust that artist Mrinalini Mukherjee, 65, would pass away just days after the opening of her most momentous exhibition, Transfigurations: The Sculpture of Mrinalini Mukherjee, at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. And yet, it also seems somewhat characteristic of Mukherjee - quietly moving on while her artwork continues to dialogue with its audience.

An understated personality, Mukherjee embodied the spirit of experimentation and non-conformism in both her art and life. "She made tough choices and never took the easy way out", says friend and fellow artist, Nilima Sheikh.

The sculptural practice of Mrinalini Mukherjee has always been foremost about material - its hidden character and tactile potential. She is best known for her sculptures using dyed and knotted hemp fibre and cast bronzes although she also worked with hand-modeled ceramics and wax during her career that spanned over four decades. "I went to the material without any training or pre-conceived notion," she had said, "And felt a great freedom in being able to make it my own." Nature remained her primary source of inspiration.

Mukherjee dedicated herself, especially through the 1980s and early 1990s, to creating and recreating, twisting, hand-dying, knotting and shaping her sisal and hemp fibre sculptures that take on daring, sometimes sinister and often erotic forms. Her iconic piece, "Pushp" (1993), is a flower, but also reminiscent of the vulva. A voluptuous red opening leads to a dark interior. The work is based on prakriti, the female principle, an aspect of the mother goddess central to regeneration. Over the last decade, the artist also created masterpieces in bronze as she explored the material to "attain a level of marvel that edged slightly towards the monstrous."

Born in 1949, Mukherjee was the only child of Santiniketan artists Leela and Benode Behari Mukherjee. She grew up in Dehradun but visited Santiniketan often. Initially reluctant to become an artist, she finally took the plunge and was sent off by her father to MS University in Baroda to study painting and then mural design (1965-70) under artist KG Subramanyan who encouraged his students to be inspired by the richly varied forms produced by a long and continuous tradition of Indian artisans working within the loosely termed "craft" movement. In 1971, Mukherjee received a British Council scholarship for sculpture and worked at the West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham, UK, where she gained international recognition.

Mukherjee's works are in the permanent collections of the Tate Modern, London; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, among others. Her works were also included in the tenth Gwangju Biennale, 2014.

Mrinalini Mukherjee will be remembered as one of the greatest artists of this generation. Her artistic courage, boldness in her use of atypical medium, and integrity of form will define her place in the history of Indian contemporary art.