Avinash Chandra

Mr. Bartarya and Avinash Chandra met in London and developed a lifelong friendship. He acquired many paintings directly from the artist and this particular work was purchased circa 1980s.

Small hairline craquelure is visible in areas of thicker paint. The surface of this work is uneven due to the artistic process. This painting is in good overall condition, as viewed.
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Avinash Chandra is known for his abstracted yet sexualised 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 paint 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, unheard of at the time for an artist of Indian origin. 

By the 1960s, approximately the same time that this painting was produced, 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. Chandra saw his own art practice, and indeed all art, as quintessential to understanding thought processes and foundation. “Art has always been, always will be, the essential instrument in the development of human consciousness” (ibid.).