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Lot 46

 

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Born in Sanjaya village in Gujarat, Madhvi Parekh is a self-taught artist who started painting in 1964. Given her early life in the Indian countryside, the artist's stylized idiom reflects rural influences and is clearly inspired by the rich folk traditions of picture making in Gujarat. Over the years Parekh has retained the traditional flat surface and the decorative elements in her work, yet she has never been constrained by folk conventions.... Born in Sanjaya village in Gujarat, Madhvi Parekh is a self-taught artist who started painting in 1964. Given her early life in the Indian countryside, the artist's stylized idiom reflects rural influences and is clearly inspired by the rich folk traditions of picture making in Gujarat. Over the years Parekh has retained the traditional flat surface and the decorative elements in her work, yet she has never been constrained by folk conventions. Her use of oils and acrylics on canvas, which has broadened the scope of her artistic production, has evolved alongside the progressive development of the themes she explores. Nevertheless, the initial naïve charm of her paintings can still be seen in the colorful recesses of her works, even though their narrative may be influenced by her stance on various relevant issues ranging from women and the girl child to encounters between rural and urban India. Parekh has been successful in creating a visuality that remains inspired by rural India while addressing themes that are relevant across the rural-urban divide.

Memories of the artist's childhood village, particularly the rituals and mythological characters she grew up with, play a crucial role in her works, lending them a surreal and other worldly quality. Her use of intense colours along with two dimensional compositions recalls early Indian manuscript paintings. Writing about Parekh, art historian Mary-Ann Milford-Lutzker brings to the viewers' attention the many tales that her canvases reveal. She notes that Parekh's paintings "…can generate so many questions, allowing its use as a backdrop for multiple tales, just as itinerant storytellers use their painted pat scrolls to narrate the myths and events of the day to their village audiences" (India: Contemporary Art from Northeastern Private Collections, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum exhibition catalogue, 2002, p.82- 83).

Milford-Lutzker further states that Parekh's paintings "…have earned her the reputation for producing works of whimsical fantasy that can be read on many different levels. At first glance it appears to be a work with child-like appeal. On closer inspection there is the uneasy recognition that the parts do not seem to have a logic that relate them to the whole. Parekh herself has stated that she has no clear idea of how her paintings will turn out. They evolve as she works on them, allowing her to fill the interstices with spontaneous anecdotal asides". (Ibid.)

The present lot is a vast canvas depicting multiple scenes. Titled Biography of Me and My Neighbour (The Sky, Land & Water), the canvas is separated into three corresponding vertical sections, with registers depicting multiple scenes creating a border around them. The elongated bodies and stacked heads are reminiscent of the multi-limbed gods and goddesses that abound in rural folklore and mythology. The bands of scenes that frame the central composition bring to mind the traditional pata paintings which unite various themes and images on the same picture plane. The symbol of a shrine has been appropriated in different manner throughout the work, and birds, animals and natural scenes abound, presenting various points of reference as is characteristic of Parekh's works.

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