Manu Parekh is one of India’s most inventive painters. According to art critic John T. Spike, Director of the Florence International Biennale of Contemporary Art, ‘Parekh’s paintings break all the rules, sometimes reducing riotous colours to black and white, or making a city on a river plain into a kind of mountain…[He] is the foremost expressionist in contemporary Indian painting.’
This book examines the complete breadth of Manu Parekh’s career, from the 1960s to the present time. Over 250 of his works are included, representing every important aspect of his oeuvre. We see his exploration of ritual in the late 1970s, the legendary paintings inspired by the Bhagalpur blindings and his enduring fascination with the holy city of Banaras which he has explored in great depth over the decades.
The book includes a late career highlight, a monumental work of ‘heads’, completed in 2017, that is based on Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
Through its exploration of the rich body of Parekh’s work, this book gives us unique insights into one of our most important painters.
MANU PAREKH is among India’s best-known contemporary artists. He received his diploma in Drawing and Painting from Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai, in 1962, and has held several solo shows and participated in a number of group exhibitions in India and abroad. He has been Member of the Society of Contemporary Artists, Kolkata; Member of the General Council, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi; and Member of the Advisory Committee, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Parekh received an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, in 2013.
He was awarded the President of India’s Silver Plaque and the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award, New Delhi, in 1972; the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, in 1982; and the Padma Shri in 1992.