Avinash Chandra

Cowley Abbott Auction House Biography and Notes

Indian artist Avinash Chandra studied painting at the Delhi Polytechnic, and quickly found acclaim thereafter, winning First Prize at the 1954 First National Art Exhibition of Art, in New Delhi. Despite his early success, Chandra was dissatisfied with the art world, and left India for the United Kingdom in 1956. In London he was struck by the expressionist paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and Chaim Soutine, which greatly inspired Chandra's dramatic abstract landscape and figural works. The artist developed a unique expressive painterly style of intricate interlacing forms that often straddled the abstract and representational. He soon became one of the first Indian artists to achieve widespread international recognition. Chandra was the first Indian artist to exhibit at one of the most important art events worldwide - Documenta in Kassel, West Germany, in 1964. The following year, Chandra became the first Indian British artist exhibited at Tate Britain, in London. His work is featured in the collections of several institutions, including the National Gallery of Art in New Delhi, the Tate Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Le Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in Berlin, among others.