Manu Parekh b. 1939

Manu Parekh has played a significant role in shaping the trajectory of modern Indian art through a practice that is deeply invested in the relationship between place, spirituality, and human experience. Over the course of a career spanning several decades, he has developed a visual language distinguished by its expressive energy, bold colour, and emotional intensity.

Central to Parekh's oeuvre is his sustained engagement with the city of Varanasi. Rather than depicting the city as a topographical landscape, he approaches it as a living, symbolic space where life, death, devotion, and transformation coexist. Temples, ghats, flowers, and architectural forms recur throughout his work, not as descriptive elements but as vehicles through which broader existential concerns are explored. Through dynamic compositions and heightened colour, Parekh captures the psychological and spiritual resonance of the city rather than its physical appearance.

A defining feature of his practice is the expressive use of colour and line. Forms are often simplified, fragmented, or reconfigured, generating compositions that pulse with movement and vitality. His paintings balance abstraction and figuration, allowing emotional and symbolic content to emerge through the interaction of shape, colour, and gesture. This approach enables his work to transcend representation and operate on a more experiential level.

While spirituality remains an important thread within his practice, Parekh's work is equally concerned with the energies that shape everyday existence. His paintings reflect a continual search for meaning within the rhythms of nature, ritual, and human life. Through this sustained inquiry, he has forged a body of work that is both intensely personal and universally resonant.