Exhibition at the AB Gallery - AKKITHAM
When: 08.10.2026 11:30
Where: 48.855220, 2.337185
Organizer: Admin
Exhibition Akkitham
The event is doubly singular. On the one hand, he highlights a major painter in India – three times winner of the country's highest official distinction – but still too discreet on the French scene, even though he has lived and worked in Paris for more than half a century. And on the other hand, it comes at a time when European collectors are increasingly interested in modern and contemporary Indian art, brought about by the emergence of a wealthy middle class and the international openness of Indian institutions.
The exhibition brings together about thirty oils on canvas covering several decades of creation. It offers visitors the opportunity to discover a work that is fully part of the research of Western geometric abstraction of the twentieth century, while drawing on the symbolic and ritual traditions of India. An approach that makes Akkitham a unique case: that of an artist who has built a personal plastic language at the crossroads of two worlds.
For collectors as well as art lovers, this exhibition is a rare opportunity to see a large collection of works by a painter whose score, still measured in Europe, is expected to follow the dynamics of the Indian market. It is also a concrete entry into a broader subject: how is Indian art internationalized? How do its major artists position themselves between heritage and modernity? And how has Paris, the home of Narayanan Akkitham since 1967, remained a hub of this dialogue?
Narayanan Akkitham in his workshop - AB Gallery; Credits: © Cornelis Van Voorthuizen
Who is Narayanan Akkitham?
Born in Kerala in 1939, Narayanan Akkitham was trained at the Government School of Arts and Crafts in Chennai, where he followed the teachings of K.C. S. Paniker and D.P. Roy Choudhury. In 1967, a grant from the French government allowed him to join Paris. He then entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Jean Bertholle.
After a figurative period, Akkitham moved into a personal geometric abstraction in the late 1960s.
His work is never a decorative formalism: it is a true meditation on the invisible structures of the world. Triangles, circles, squares, lines and calligraphic signs become elements of a plastic vocabulary inspired by Indian cosmologies, tantric diagrams, Vedic thought and ancient Indian wall pictorial traditions.
Geometry appears as a universal writing, capable of translating the relationship between matter, energy and spirituality. Colour plays an essential role in this inner quest. Overlayed in subtle sails, the tones seem to irradiate from the surface of the painting rather than settle in.
Narayanan Akkitham built a work that travels continuously between India and France.
He has exhibited on numerous occasions in India, where he enjoys a major institutional recognition, while being regularly shown in France, Japan, Germany and Poland. His paintings have entered major public collections, including the National Library of France, the French Ministry of Culture and the National Museum of New Delhi. This dual establishment, both European and Indian, is also enshrined in several distinctions. He received the Lalit Kala Akademi Award (1963, 1965, 1966), the highest official award to an artist in India, and the K.C. S. Paniker Puraskaram and the Raja Ravi Varma Award, which confirm the lasting place of his work in the history of contemporary Indian art.
Narayanan Akkitham in public collections
• National Museum, New Delhi, India
• National Art Gallery, Chennai, India
• Ahmedabad Museum, India
• Bangalore Museum, India
• Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Paris, France
• National Library of France
• Prefecture of Paris, France
• Hyacinthe-Rigaud Museum, Perpignan, France
• Wilhelmshaven Museum, Germany
• Glenbarra Museum of Art, Japan
• Asia Pacific Museum, Warsaw, Poland
• Museum of Sacred Art (MOSA), Durbuy, Belgium
Tags: exhibition, contemporary, painting, art
Source: https://www.paris.fr/evenements/exposition-a-la-galerie-ab-akkitham-117258
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