Running Figure

Madhvi Parekh’s folk modernism is inspired by both—village art and a modernist vocabulary—but belongs to neither. It traverses that elusive space where the elements from both mingle seamlessly, creating a lexicon that’s totally her own. Though Running Figure is bereft of colour, it is a busy work peopled with animals, birds, and trees, in an ecosystem of which the figure is a part, just like the universe of folk paintings. On the other hand, the dots, dashes, cross-hatching, and thick lines, imbue it with a universally appealing modernism.