Born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Manu Parekh studied at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. With influences as varied as Arshile Gorky, Roberto Matta, S. B. Palsikar and Rabindranath Tagore, Parekh has always sought to explore his inner landscape through art. Learn More
Madhvi Parekh was born and raised in Sanjaya, a village in Gujarat. Though she is self-taught and took up painting only in 1964, inspired by her artist-husband Manu Parekh, art remained a part of her consciousness through childhood memories, her family’s rituals such as the traditional floor designs of rangoli, popular folk stories, and simple village life. While expecting their first child, Parekh’s husband gifted her a book on drawing exercises by Paul Klee, and soon she was taking the first steps towards creating her own art vocabulary. Learn More
A student of K. C. S. Paniker—the influential artist-teacher and founding father of the Madras Art Movement—M. Senathipathi is known for his richly textured works drawn from mythology and contextualised in contemporary social issues. Learn More
Born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, M. K. Parandekar was a prolific painter—he made panoramic views of archaeological sites, landscapes and portraits. His initial training was under his father, a Sanskrit scholar and painter, and he followed that up with formal study at Sir J. J. School of Art, Bombay. Learn More
In the galaxy of modern masters, one name that is synonymous with twentieth century Indian art, is M. F. Husain’s. Born in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, on 17 September 1911, Husain came to Bombay in 1937 to become a painter, where he slept on footpaths and painted under streetlights. A self-taught artist, he began his career painting cinema posters and hoardings, and, in 1941, started making toys and furniture designs. Learn More
Growing up in Dehradun, Latika Katt learnt to observe everything closely through the numerous trekking expeditions she took with her botanist father. She completed her bachelor’s in fine arts from Banaras Hindu University and later completed her master’s from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. University, Baroda, in 1971. Interestingly, hers was the first art degree batch of the prestigious institution and she was the first female student to receive a gold medal in sculpture from the university. Later, in 1981, she received a research scholarship from the Slade School of Art, London. Learn More
Forced to paint signboards at the age of eleven when his father died, Krishna Shamrao Kulkarni battled numerous early struggles to achieve a pre-eminent place in modern Indian art. Born in a village in Belgaum in Karnataka in 1916, Kulkarni engaged with modernist techniques and mediums to create a highly individuated pictorial language. Learn More
K. C. S. Paniker, a towering personality in the world of Indian modern art, is remembered most for spearheading the Madras Art Movement and founding the Cholamandal Artists’ Village on the outskirts of Madras in 1966. Learn More
Born in Lothal in Gujarat, one of the most important sites of the Harappan civilisation (3300-1300 BCE), Himmat Shah’s long-term engagement with terracotta traces its roots to the ancient antecedents of his birthplace, seen especially in his sculptural Heads. Learn More
Born on 26 March 1934 in the village of Valod, Gujarat, Haku Shah absorbed deeply the way of life, culture and beliefs of the pastoral and the folk, which he amply manifested in his works. This understanding also moulded him into a cultural anthropologist who brought global academic focus on tribal and folk arts and culture of India. Learn More
Born into a family of classical musicians in Cuttack, Orissa, Gopal Sanyal came to Calcutta in 1948 and took a diploma in fine arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts in 1957. A national scholarship awardee in painting for three years from the Government of India, Sanyal was a founder member of Calcutta Painters and had exhibited at its inaugural group show at All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, New Delhi, in 1963; he was also a lecturer in fine arts. Learn More
Born into a prosperous Ceylonese family of Indo-Dutch origin, George Keyt spent his childhood in an environment where Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and European cultures commingled, a premise that would later appear in his work. A self-taught artist, Keyt’s success was unparalleled with many celebrities such as actor Vivian Leigh, writer Evelyn Waugh, poet Pablo Neruda, and photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, among others, visiting him, his art, his exhibitions. Learn More