An exhibition traces the evolution of Avinash Chandra’s mind, from hillscapes of Shimla to sexually explicit narratives. By Anushka Bansal
There is beauty in space, and an empty space is the perfect canvas for an artist to create a masterpiece. Avinash Chandra, almost instinctively, was a landscape artist who enjoyed the outdoors especially his travels through the Shimla hills. Retaining them in his mind he painted them on canvas, in mostly unbelievable colours. His later works during the decade reveal sophistication and flatter tones than the earlier ones.
When he relocated from New Delhi to london in the mid-60s, Chandra dropped the landscape almost completely for emerging human form which gradually eased into his work. Although, he continued with his passion for painting landscapes which became, at this point, a little more European. Perhaps in view of his new surroundings but they were also at the cusp of a change that was marked by increasing distortion and a sense of celebration.
The publication Avinash Chandra: A Retrospective, accompanied by an exhibition at the Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), brings together his art, right from the early 50s. His first one-man show came in 1951, even before he had graduated from Delhi Polytechnic. On a vacation in Srinagar, he had decided to exhibit the landscapes of the valley he had painted. He became the first artist to sell to the newly-established National Gallery of Modern Art in 1954, when his work Trees was acquired by the institution. The same work also won him the 1954 lalit Kala Akademi prize that he shared with eight others.
Before he left for london in 1956, where his wife Prem lata was invited on a scholarship to study at the Central School of Art, Chandra had already built a reputation of being a confident artist, who was frank and outspoken, according to artist Arpita Singh. “His freedom of handling oils or tempera is surprisingly delightful,” noted Delhi Silpi Chakra’s honorary secretary DR Kowshik. But new opportunities were calling. In 1965, he was in New York, on a John D Rockefeller scholarship. While in this decade in America, sexual imagery became more explicit, with several important figurative work.
Soon, he met Valerie Murray Chandra, an actor whom he married. With her, he travelled the world, including Jamaica, which was to hugely influence his works where the nudes morphed into a plethora of orchids, flowering trees and shrubs.