Jaya Appasamy (1917-1989) did her graduation from Madras, and a Diploma in Fine Arts from Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan in the 1930s. She was a serious student of painting and went to China where she applied herself to learn the Chinese style painting. She then did her Masters in the History of Art in the United States. Back in India, she joined the Delhi Polytechnic and began to write in 'The Hindu' as an art critic. She never gave up writing thereafter, neither did she stop painting.

After the Delhi College of Art, she joined the Lalit Kala Akademi as its Editor and served this post with great distinction until she retired. While at the Akademi, she was awarded a fellowship by the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, during which she wrote the first well documented treatise on the paintings of Abanindranath Tagore and the art of his times. This was followed by a book on contemporary sculpture and another on Indian glass paintings.

Appasamy wrote extensively on modern and contemporary art practices in India and was an avid collector too. She wanted to build a collector's museum, which finally took shape in the form of the Rasaja Foundation in the last few years of her life. A part of the foundation's collection is now housed at the NGMA Delhi.

Appasamy's works depict the varied forms in nature, symbolizing the common spirit they share.

Her oil paintings are characterized by a solidity of form and rich, vivid color expressed in a modernist idiom.

Besides being an artist, Jaya Appasamy was also an art critic and collector. She not only did significant study on Indian art of the colonial era but made a collection of the works of that period. Even today she is a recognised authority on the Company School and Indian glass painting. In her own life too, she experienced the making of modern Indian art and wrote extensively on it.