Manu Parekh Biography 
Manu Parekh is an Indian artist and painter, best regarded as one of India's most inventive living Master of Indian Modern Art. He has been influenced by Rabindranath Tagore and Ram Kinker Baij. A recipient of numerous honours, government of India honoured him with Padma Shri in 1991 and Lalit Kala Akademi honoured him in 1982. He is also a recipient of Birla Academy of Art and Culture Award, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society Award and Silver Plaque given by President of India. Parekh has served as the Exhibition Commissioner for Madhubani Painting show in Italy and Denmark and Contemporary Indian Painting at the Festival of India at Stockholm in 1987.
Parekh hails from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He was born in the year 1939 during British reign in India. He graduated in Arts from the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art, Mumbai in 1962. He had a stort stint with NSD and started his career as a theatre artist in Delhi. He worked as an actor and stage designer for one year with NSD and then joined Weavers' Service Centre, Mumbai of Pupul Jayakar as art designer in 1963. He shifted to Kolkata in 1965 where he worked nearly for a decade before he moved to Delhi in 1974. Since then he is living in Delhi with his wife Madhvi. He worked as a Design Consultant with Handicrafts and Handlooms Export Corporation of India for a while.
Later he quit his job to pursue a career as freelancer. Most of his paintings were based on Varanasi, the holy city. Apart from a well-known painter, he has also worked as an art curator and conducted many art exhibitions over the years. He held Modern Painting exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art in 1982, followed by many solo exhibitions in India and abroad. He has spent more than 60 years in the field of art till now. A retrospective titled “Manu Parekh: 60 years of Collected Works” which included over 250 of his works was exhibited at the NGMA Mumbai and Delhi in 2017.
Published: January 22, 2019
Updated: January 22, 2019
