Avinash Chandra (28 August 1931 – 15 September 1991) was an Indian painter, who lived and worked in the United Kingdom.

Early life and education

Avinash Chandra was born on 28 August 1931 in Shimla, India, and was brought up there and in Delhi. His father was the manager of the Cecil hotel in Delhi. His family wanted him to study engineering and for the first six months after enrolling at Delhi Polytechnic Art School, his family did not know he was studying art. Chandra graduated in 1951 with a first class degree in Fine Art and joined the faculty staff. His students include Paramjit Singh, Arpita Singh and Gopi Gajwani. His 1955 "Snow in Pahalgam" sold for INR 4,375,000. He moved to Golders Green, London, in 1956, with his first wife, artist Prem Lata Chandra who had been awarded a scholarship to study at the Central School of Art.

Awards and recognition

Chandra won first prize at the First National Art Exhibition of Art, in New Delhi, in 1954 and the gold medal in 1962. In 1962 he was featured in a BBC '' Monitor'' documentary, presented by

W.G. Archer William George Archer, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE (1907-1979) was a British civil servant and art historian, and later museum curator. Career Archer was born on 1 February 1907, and studied first history at Emmanuel Colle ...

, and in 2018 in the BBC documentary ''Whoever Heard of a Black Artist?''. A solo exhibition was held at the Hamilton Galleries in London in 1965. His murals in glass survive in Alexander House, created for the Anglo-Dutch Cigar Company in

Finchley Finchley () is a large district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Barnet. Finchley is on high ground, north of Charing Cross. Nearby districts include: Golders Green, Muswell Hill, Friern Barnet, Whetstone, Mill Hill and H ...

(1963) and for the

Pilkington Brothers Pilkington is a Japanese-owned glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, United Kingdom. In the UK it includes several legal entities and is a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass, NSG Group. Prior to its a ...

Glass company in St Helens, Merseyside. His work was also exhibited as part of '' The Other Story: Afro-Asian artists in post-war Britain'' at the Hayward Gallery in 1989; and is in collections including those of the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

, Kettle's Yard,

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

, Leicestershire County Council, , Museum of Modern Art (Berlin), Museum of Modern Art (Haifa), National Gallery of Modern Art, the

National Trust for England The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, New York University, Punjab Museum, Tate, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Solo exhibitions

1987 ''Avinash Chandra'', Horizon Gallery, London.

Group exhibitions

1987 ''The Other Story,'' Hayward Gallery, London.

Reviews, articles, texts, etc.

- Rasheed Araeen, 'Conversation with Avinash Chandra', Third Text, no.3/4, (Spring - Summer 1988), 69–95. - 'Avinash Chandra', Third Text, no.16/17, (Autumn - Winter), 3–4. - James Burr, 'Obituary', Apollo, no.135, (January 1992), 54.

Personal life

He married artist Prem Lata in India, and they moved to the UK in 1956. They had a daughter, Alita in London in 1964. The marriage broke down through domestic violence and Prem Chandra took her daughter back to her family in India, before committing suicide in 1975, after which her mother raised her daughter. Chandra married his second wife Valerie Murray, a British actress of Jamaican heritage, in 1977. He died in London on 15 September 1991.