Madhvi Parekh Madhvi
Parekh, who works and lives in New Delhi, was born in 1942 in Sanjay, a village in
Gujarat. A self-taught artist, Madhvi started painting in 1964, inspired by the rich folk
traditions of picture making in Gujarat. Over the years she grew out of the constraints of
the folk conventions, yet sticking to the traditional flat surface and the pictorial
significance of the decorative elements. Her use of oil and acrylic on canvas and
watercolour on paper, a decisive shift from the traditional materials and surface of the
folk painters, stimulated and broadened her artistic imagination, and the initial naive
charm of her paintings matured and became loaded with her statements on women, girl child,
and encounters between the rural and urban India.
Since 1964, Madhvi has participated in many solo and important group
shows, notably "Watercolour by Four Women Artists', Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal (1987),
Jehangir Art Gallery, Bombay (1987), 'Contemporary Art: Sahmat', presented at the Lalit
Kala Akademi, New Delhi (1990). The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India,
sponsored a documentary film on Madhvi and her artist husband Manu Parekh in 1992.
Between 1972 and 1993, Madhvi Parekh had eight solo shows, including
AI-Khaleej a in Kuwait (1985), and 13 group shows in India and abroad ('Play' in Turkey
and Yugoslavia, 1985) and participated in 12 artists' camps and workshops, and auctions
held by Sotheby's (1989, Bombay), 'Sahmat' (1989, New Delhi), Asprey (1 990, Help age
India, Bombay).
