Madhvi Parekh’s works segue into a parallel universe. A world of fantasy, where the strange and the familiar co-exist with the real and the surreal. Where man and nature become one. With faces assigned to each — people, gods and demons or even plants, animals, stars, every personified being in Parekh’s canvas, tells a tale rich in colour and texture. Her renderings are at once figments of her own imagination, as also pastiches of myriad Indian art forms. From the dotted surfaces of her earlier work, which resemble intricate Kantha thread-work or the patterns on a Kalamkari fabric, to the geometric forms akin to Gond or Madhubani folk art, her work revels in its rural leanings. It’s also evocative of our tradition of storytelling through art, seen so often in miniatures, patachitras and phads.
Return to roots
Parekh’s own history of becoming an artist is just as intriguing. As a restless young woman of 24, Parekh, who was expecting her first child then, took to painting as a means of indulging in something creative. Manu Parekh, her artist husband, suggested she start with a practice book for beginners by Swiss artist Paul Klee. Within a few days, Parekh had brought in her own style to the process. Drawing from her memories of growing up in a small village called Sanjaya, near Anand in Gujarat, she imbued the canvas with festivals, myths, rituals and customs. One familiar with Klee’s and Spanish painter Joan Miró’s work, would see a striking similarity with Parekh’s early oeuvre.
Owing to both Klee and Miró’s affinity to folk art from their respective regions, their use of simplified, childlike forms and semi-abstracted, geometric shapes, with Klee’s conscious philosophical return to roots approach, the semblance comes as no surprise.
These influences combined with the inner workings of her own perceptive mind is what makes Parekh’s work unique. “…my work is my own, unlike anyone else’s. Paul Klee and Miró were mostly my ‘teachers’, their works in books shown to me by Manu becoming my first lessons in self-schooling”, she affirms, ahead of her first Mumbai retrospective. Showcasing 60 crucial artworks from her career spanning over the past five decades, the exhibition, which earlier showed in September 2017 in Delhi is aptly titled The Curious Seeker. The extensive body of work on display helps trace the manner in which Parekh’s work has transformed over time. From her pen and ink and oil pastels from the 60s and 70s to her acrylic creations, one can vicariously partake in the artist’s journey.
Life experiences
“Changes, when they occur, are so slight, you hardly notice them. But you are being influenced by what you see, your thoughts (often subconsciously), and your reactions to them,” explains Parekh, adding how her work “organically assimilated” motherhood, her family life, her travels and learnings from her peers. An example: the challenging reverse painting technique she learned from artist Nalini Malani during a workshop they were both part of. The technique, tricky because one is painting on the reverse side of glass or acrylic sheets, was something she perfected over time with guidance from her husband. Her 2011 work, ‘The Last Supper’, a large five-panelled piece, where each panel is 6 x 4 feet, is a fine example of her deftness at this process. This belongs to Parekh’s more recent Christ series that roughly emerged around 2008, after her trips to well-known churches across Turkey, China and Russia. Recounting a particularly distressing visit to the Holocaust museum in Israel, she recollects, “I found it [the visit] very upsetting, so I walked out to a church that was very quiet and peaceful. There, the cross became a symbol of peace for me, the image of Jesus attracted me. From drawing Christ to painting the Last Supper, the original of which I had seen in Milan, was an organic journey. I like the anecdotes related to Christ’s life and am drawn to the idea of one humanity.” The cross that fascinated Parekh as a form, soon found its place in the newer paintings, which for their flatness of surface are distinctly different from the older body of work, but retain her patent use of colour. Having also tried her hand at sculpture, she finds herself happiest while painting.
“I like the quietness and intensity of painting, I enjoy the ability of being able to create, to give birth to an idea,” reflects Parekh. Today at 76, she cooks, travels, sketches, and most importantly, stays curious. “I am doing what I always do — enjoying a complete life”, she concludes, adding, “But I do not paint on demand. I let the subject find me, and soon I am immersed in it.”
The Curious Seeker is ongoing at The Delhi Art Gallery until October 27, 2018