King of the Puppet

The world of modern art has found it difficult to slot Madhvi Parekh’s work in any of its established silos. She came to art following her marriage to artist Manu Parekh and they lived in Bombay and Calcutta before making New Delhi their home. However, her art did not come to be informed by city life but evolved a folk-modernist language inspired by imagery from her native Gujarat. This oil on canvas painting bears out the crux of her practise with a folk-inspired central character that carries the universe of other beings inside itself, summing up the world of the people it entertains.