Lot Essay
Avinash Chandra's signature use of bold color and curvaceous form combines the artist's sophisticated understanding of line with capricious and imaginative compositions. Changing his artistic style from structured cubistic compositions and naturalistic landscapes to looser more whimsical displays of color, line and figuration in the 1960s, Chandra began to attract considerable attention in the British art scene. Speaking about his work from the period, the artist noted, "Mine was an upbringing that taught me to think in straight lines but, perversely, I had to think in circles [...] As I painted I found shapes thrusting upwards like plants or mushrooms, shapes that virtually exploded into life. This convulsive moment stimulated and excited me, and more drawings and paintings magically materialized" (Artist statement, Avinash Chandra, exhibition catalogue, Rose Fried Gallery, New York, 1968).