Avinash Chandra

Born in Shimla, Avinash Chandra (1931-1991) was an Indian artist who lived and painted in the United Kingdom since 1956. During his time in Europe, he focused on the language and strategy of Vincent Van Gogh and Soutine, pulling inspiration from European city scenes, which is extremely apparent in his oeuvre. Chandra was one of the few Indian artists to show at a few of the prominent art exhibitions around the world. Importantly, in 1964, his paintings had been displayed at Documenta in Kassel, West Germany.

Spending his childhood at Shimla, Chandra’s initial works were abstract and brilliant scenes reminiscent of Van Gogh’s style including the slopes from his birthplace. Chandra had been instrumental in rejecting the academic upbringing in the art to develop his singular aesthetics. The primary subject in his later works was the female body, delivered in rich lines and occasionally with erotic appreciation.

His work has been widely appreciated, particularly by galleries in the U.K. He won artistic residencies with the John D. Rockefeller III Fund and Fairfield Foundation. Significantly, he started with exquisite line drawings, which advanced all through the 1970s to explicit and sexual coloured drawings. Ranging in a dynamic palette and style of representation, Chandra oeuvre highlight his pure energy in evoking an innate sense of liberation, transition and momentary excitement. While being painterly in nature, Chandra’s lines are precise and crisp.

Despite sexual symbolism might have had a crucial part in his craft, the sense of abstraction proved his dexterity and agility in rendering primitivist and indigenous tropes. The female body as a theme occupies a major portion in his body of work. Utilizing vigour and liveliness, Chandra regularly diminished female bodies to shapes as suspended in a space attacked by phallocentric structures.