- 1319
Avinash Chandra (1931 - 1991)
Description
- Avinash Chandra
- Untitled
- Oil on board
- 36 by 60 in. (91 by 152.5 cm.)
- Painted circa 1960s
Provenance
Acquired from the above
Condition
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Catalogue Note
Chandra is known for his abstracted yet sexualized representations of the female body although he began his career painting Indian landscapes and townscapes. He was the youngest ever artist to be offered an exhibition by the Progressive Artist's Group, and was eventually awarded first prize at the Lalit Kala Akademi in 1955.When he moved permanently from New Delhi to London in 1956, he continued to develop works around the theme of landscapes and townscapes with rounded hills and whirling suns for another decade. Chandra had his first British one-man exhibition at the Imperial Institute in 1957 and it was well received. In 1962, the BBC produced a television documentary titled ‘Art of Avinash Chandra’ that brought the artist further recognition. By the middle of the 1960s Chandra’s work had become increasingly focused on the female form, and he went on to produce many oils and drawings in coloured inks with interlocking abstract figures teeming with sexual imagery. In 1964, Chandra was commissioned to make a fibre-glass mural for the Indian Tea Centre in London and a glass mural for The Chappell Music Publishing Company in 1966. Chandra was the first Indian British artist to be featured at the Tate Gallery in London when they purchased his painting ‘Hills of Gold’. In 1965, Chandra was awarded a John D. Rockefeller Fund Fellowship and in 1967 he moved to New York where he held several exhibitions on the East coast until his return to London in 1973.
In the case of this painting, his work references Post Impressionism, by flattening the picture planes and emphasizing the materiality of paint. This work is richly layered, with the careful use of colour that lends the painting an air of intensity. 'His are "symbolic presences", however a personal symbolism that is open and non-particular' (Mohini Tandon in the Hindustan Times, cited in Dr Rachel Garfield, Avinash Chandra, A Retrospective, London, 2006, p. 12.) This work is a wonderful example of Chandra's brilliant use of symbolism and colour.