Avinash Chandra

Avinash Chandra
Born	(1931-08-28)28 August 1931 Shimla, India
Died	15 September 1991(1991-09-15) (aged 60)
Nationality	Indian^[citation needed]
Occupation	Painter

Avinash Chandra (28 August 1931 – 15 September 1991) was an Indian painter, who lived and worked in the United Kingdom.^[1]

Early life and education

Avinash Chandra was born on 28 August 1931 in Shimla, India,^[2] and was brought up there and in Delhi. His father was the manager of the Cecil hotel in Delhi. His family wanted him to study engineering and for the first six months after enrolling at Delhi Polytechnic Art School, his family did not know he was studying art.^[3]

Chandra graduated in 1951 with a first class degree in Fine Art and joined the faculty staff.^[4] His students include Paramjit Singh, Arpita Singh and Gopi Gajwani.^[5] His 1955 "Snow in Pahalgam" sold for INR 4,375,000.

He moved to Golders Green, London, in 1956, with his first wife, artist Prem Lata Chandra who had been awarded a scholarship to study at the Central School of Art.^[6][7][4][8]

Awards and recognition

Chandra won first prize at the First National Art Exhibition of Art, in New Delhi, in 1954^[8] and the gold medal Prix Européen in 1962.^[8]

In 1962 he was featured in a BBC Monitor documentary, presented by W.G. Archer,^[8][9] and in 2018 in the BBC documentary Whoever Heard of a Black Artist?.^[1]

A solo exhibition was held at the Hamilton Galleries in London in 1965.^[4] His murals in glass survive in Alexander House, created for the Anglo-Dutch Cigar Company in Finchley (1963)^[10] and for the Pilkington Brothers Glass company in St Helens, Merseyside.^[6]

His work was also exhibited as part of The Other Story: Afro-Asian artists in post-war Britain at the Hayward Gallery in 1989;^[4] and is in collections including those of the Arts Council of Great Britain, Ashmolean Museum, Kettle's Yard, Durham University, Leicestershire County Council, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Museum of Modern Art (Berlin), Museum of Modern Art (Haifa), National Gallery of Modern Art, the National Trust for England, New York University, Punjab Museum, Tate, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.^[8][11][12]

Solo exhibitions

1987 Avinash Chandra, Horizon Gallery, London.^[13]

Group exhibitions

1987 The Other Story, Hayward Gallery, London.^[4]

Reviews, articles, texts, etc.

^[13]

- Rasheed Araeen, 'Conversation with Avinash Chandra', Third Text, no.3/4, (Spring - Summer 1988), 69–95.

- 'Avinash Chandra', Third Text, no.16/17, (Autumn - Winter), 3–4.

- James Burr, 'Obituary', Apollo, no.135, (January 1992), 54.

Personal life

He married artist Prem Lata in India, and they moved to the UK in 1956. They had a daughter, Alita in London in 1964.^[7] The marriage broke down through domestic violence and Prem Chandra took her daughter back to her family in India, before committing suicide in 1975, after which her mother raised her daughter.^[14][15]

Chandra married his second wife Valerie Murray, a British actress of Jamaican heritage, in 1977.^[3]

He died in London on 15 September 1991.^[2]

References

1. "Whoever Heard of a Black Artist?". 30 July 2018. BBC. Retrieved 4 August 2018. {{cite episode}}: Missing or empty |series= (help)
2. "Chandra, Avinash". Le Delarge. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
3. "Avinash Chandra at the October Gallery - Pamphlet". VADS.
4. "Diaspora-artists: View details". Diaspora Artists. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
5. Avinash Chandra: The Disappearing Artist, Somak Ghoshal, Open Magazine, 22 April 2016
6. Burr, James (January 1992). "Beyond Europe : Shiko Munakata / Avinash Chandra". Apollo. CXXXV (359).
7. "Alita Chandra Wig". www.madsgallery.art. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
8. "Avinash Chandra 1931-1991". Tate. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
9. "Correspondence about the making of the BBC Monitor film on Avinash Chandra". The National Archives. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
10. "Mural in glass, Alexander House, Finchley, created for the Anglo-Dutch Cigar Company (1963)". Twitter. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
11. "Avinash Chandra". Christie's. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
12. "Avinash Chandra (1931–1991)". Art UK.
13. Keen, Melanie (1996). Recordings : a select bibliography of contemporary African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian British art. Ward, Elizabeth. London: Institute of International Visual Arts and Chelsea College of Art and Design. ISBN 1-899846-06-9. OCLC 36076932.
14. "Who is Prem Chandra? by Alina Khakoo – Animating Archives". sites.gold.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
15. "Lifelines". Open The Magazine. 23 November 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2023.

Further reading

• Archer, W.G. (January 1961). "Avinash Chandra: painter from India". The Studio. 161 (813): 4–7.
• Archer, W.G. (1965). Avinash Chandra. Hamilton Galleries.
• Araeen, Rasheed (1 March 1988). "Conversation with Avinash Chandra". Third Text. 2 (3–4): 69–95. doi:10.1080/09528828808576190. ISSN 0952-8822.