‘There is a freedom in drawing': Madhvi Parekh on her solo exhibition showcasing sketches from 1978 to 2018

Indian Express

18-07-2025

In several ways, artist-couple Madhvi and Manu Parekh's Delhi home reflects the essence of their marriage: a mutual respect for their individual preferences and interests. Between discussions and occasional diverging views, their distinct artistic practices also find space on common walls alongside works of friends and fellow artists such as Ashok Ahuja and Bhupen Khakhar. Looking at the canvas of the late Baroda modernist, Madhvi, 83, recalls how their association grew stronger because both did not receive a formal art education. 'We used to discuss the challenges we faced. When I first began painting on canvas, I felt like crying if I made a mistake. Bhupen taught me how to paint a layer of white on top and do it again. The white background also made the colours brighter,' says Madhvi, days after the opening of her solo, 'Madhvi Parekh: Remembered Tales', at DAG in Delhi.
The exhibition that is on till August 23, features her recent canvases alongside a selection of drawings spanning 1978 to 2018. The latter are distinctly more intuitive, offering a glimpse into her creative process, with depictions ranging from figures with fish and birds seated on them to creatures bearing multiple heads. 'There is a freedom in drawing and a certain spontaneity. The different elements that appear on the same page may not always be related or interconnected,' says Madhvi. As she browses through the three-volume publication, titled 'Madhvi Parekh: Early Drawings', she shares how several of these notations have led to larger works, including a Tibetan prayer wheel she encountered during a trip to Ladakh and a vivid village scene where a man is seen lazing on a charpoy, while another figure sits under a tree, on which a bird perches.
Several of her works also stem from childhood recollections of growing up in Sanjaya, a village in Gujarat, 60-odd km from Baroda. She recalls how her homemaker mother and educator-ayurvedic practitioner father instilled in their six children early lessons on hard work and optimal utilisation of time. 'I led the best childhood there can be. There was so much natural beauty around and the entire neighbourhood was like a big family. We would sit together in the evenings, embroider, make rangolis during festivals. We used to look forward to attending Ramlila during Navratri and the travelling circuses and behrupiyas, who would make an occasional stop,' recalls Madhvi.
One of the larger canvases in the ongoing exhibition, titled 'Travelling Circus in My Village', alludes to some of those outings. The triptych features acrobats, birds, animals, protagonists with horns and other fantastical creatures dancing across the mélange. If 'Pond in my Village' comprises varied scenes from rural settings, in the canvas 'Two Scarecrow in my Rice Field', the titular figures dominate the predominantly black-and-white composition that features numerous reptiles, birds, animals, flying objects and a shrine that seems to be dedicated to fauna.
Engaged to artist Manu Parekh when he was 12 and she was nine, and married when she was 15, it was well into her 20s that a then pregnant Madhvi decided to pursue art. Paul Klee's 'Pedagogical Sketchbook' handed to her by Manu became her Bible, that she pored over with careful attention. Within a week, Madhvi was giving Klee's geometric forms a personal twist, adding limbs and wings and placing her figures in more familiar rural landscapes. 'In India, no one after Jamini Roy had really explored this merger of the West and traditional Indian folk, and this became Madhvi's unique language,' says Manu.
While raising their two daughters, Manisha and Deepa, took precedence, Madhvi recalls how any spare moment would be spent in practising art and discovering new techniques. Artist-friend Nalini Malani, for instance, taught her the nuances of reverse glass technique that Madhvi adapted in her own way and still extensively employs.
Though the diverse exposure she had as a child continues to direct her oeuvre, her experiences and observations from residing in different cities such as Mumbai and Kolkata, and her extensive travels also find expression in her work. Her disturbing visit to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem in 2004, where she was moved by the testimonies of the victims and the atrocities committed by the Nazis, led her to seek solace in the figure of Christ.
After researching numerous depictions, Madhvi reflected on how she had been mesmerised by Leonardo da Vinci's Renaissance masterpiece 'The Last Supper' during a trip to Milan, Italy. She decided to paint her version, imbibing it with diverse folk elements. The series was among the highlights of her first major travelling retrospective 'The Curious Seeker', organised by DAG in 2017-18, and was also part of her solo presentation at Frieze Masters in London in 2022. While her canvas 'The Bird on the Tree' is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the 2024 Venice Biennale saw her and Manu's works being replicated onto intricately embroidered wall art created in collaboration with Karishma Swali's Chanakya School of Craft. 'During the initial years, I had to find time to become an artist and creating a work gives me immense joy,' says Madhvi, adding, 'I paint and sketch what comes to my mind. I am not really affected by what people say.'
So the beginnings of her complex narratives still appear relatively simple. A circle forms a face, followed by a square for the body and triangles for limbs — as they come together, a complete figure is born.