Avinash Chandra

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. 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 in 2018 in the BBC documentary Whoever Heard of a Black Artist?. and for the Pilkington Brothers Glass company in St Helens, Merseyside.

Solo exhibitions 1987 Avinash Chandra, Horizon Gallery, London.

Group exhibitions 1987 The Other Story, Hayward Gallery, London. 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.