Indian art: Meet the masters of popular aesthetics
These artists form the bulwark of the market and include well-known names with a consistent body and quality of work. To the public, they represent the face of Indian art without having to carry the burden of social engagement, thereby, believing in art for its own sake.
Curated By: Kishore Singh
The mortal immortal
MANU PAREKH (b. 1939)
Flowers from Heaven XIII
Acrylic on canvas
100 x 80 inches
Known principally as a landscape artist for his enduring ode to Benaras, Manu Parekh distills part of it in the manner of still-lifes or temple offerings. For Parekh, these have a subcutaneous erotic layer, a reference to fertility and lushness in nature, akin to human sexuality. Drawn to the idea of this robust sexuality, he notes that it forms part of the sacred in India. The flowering blooms, their intoxicating scents and overpowering attraction for birds and bees, and their consequent state of decay and the passing of life suffuses his canvases. Heady with the fragrance of ritualised ceremonies, Parekh revels in the classical allusion to these floral offerings in an abstracted sense. His representations, then, can be a suggestion of strewn petals, or they can be elaborate arrangements, but the bower he recreates holds within it the secrets of nature itself.
MANU PAREKH (b. 1939)
Flowers from Heaven XIII
Acrylic on canvas
100 x 80 inches
Known principally as a landscape artist for his enduring ode to Benaras, Manu Parekh distills part of it in the manner of still-lifes or temple offerings. For Parekh, these have a subcutaneous erotic layer, a reference to fertility and lushness in nature, akin to human sexuality. Drawn to the idea of this robust sexuality, he notes that it forms part of the sacred in India. The flowering blooms, their intoxicating scents and overpowering attraction for birds and bees, and their consequent state of decay and the passing of life suffuses his canvases. Heady with the fragrance of ritualised ceremonies, Parekh revels in the classical allusion to these floral offerings in an abstracted sense. His representations, then, can be a suggestion of strewn petals, or they can be elaborate arrangements, but the bower he recreates holds within it the secrets of nature itself.
