Avinash Chandra was born in Simla, India and studied at Delhi Polytechnic 1947-52. He won first prize at the First National Exhibition of Art in New Delhi in 1954 and had several one-man shows there in the early 1950s before moving to London in 1956. His first British solo show was at the Commonwealth Institute in 1957. Along with his fellow Indian F N Souza, Chandra met great acclaim. He won a gold medal at the Priz Europeene at Ostende in 1962 and from 1965-1971 lived in New York before returning to London.
Chandra’s work was noted for its strongly erotic element. He exhibited widely in Britain, Europe and America and his work is held in the UK by Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum and the Arts Council. Internationally, it forms part of the permanent collections in the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, the Musee d’Art Modern in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art, Berlin amongst others. Increasingly he has come to be regarded as one of India’s foremost 20th century artists.
