biography

Honoured and elected as one of only nine Eminent Artists of India by the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi in 1956, Shiavax Chavda was a master modernist, considered one of the pioneers of Indian modern art in the 40s and 50s and a master of the dancing line. Other awards and honours included the Sir William Orpen Bursery, Slade (1939), Abhivadan Trust Award (1985), a conferred fellowship by the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (1986), and Artist of the Year Award by the Maharashtra State Government (1990).

Born in 1914 in Navsari, Gujarat, Chavda was a student of the eminent Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai.

In 1935, he studied at the Slade School, London, under Professor Randolph Schwabe and then under Vladimir Polunin, a pupil of the great Russian stage designer Leon Bakst, working for Sir Thomas Beecham and the Diaghilev Ballet. Finally he received instruction at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris.

EXHIBITIONS

Three major retrospectives of Chavda’s works were held in 1993, 2017 and 2019, the former two at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, and the latter at the Nehru Centre Art Gallery in Mumbai.

2022 has seen the start of a series of exhibitions from the Chavda estate’s private collection.

Carina Chavda, youngest of three granddaughters of artist, Shiavax Chavda with fashion designer, Frederick Anderson at the designer's after-party at New York hotspot, Veranda during the 2022 New York Fashion Week. The exhibition featured eight iconic pieces of the master artist's works, including the seminal painting above.

One of the works exhibited at the Nehru Centre Art Gallery's Indian Masters’ Retrospective Exhibition in Mumbai on Shiavax Chavda, 20 December 2018 to 6 January 2019.

One of a number of paintings, drawings and sketches on view at, "The Dancing Line – Revisiting Shiavax Chavda" exhibition in Mumbai at the Jehangir Art Gallery, 24 to 30 October 2017.

Known for his wide range of subjects including musicians, classical dancers, animals, Balinese masks as well as semi-abstract and abstract art, the above is one of the acrylics on canvas made in 1977 exhibited at the Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai in 1993.

MUSEUMS

Chavda’s works have been exhibited in several esteemed museums, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi and the Tate in the United Kingdom.

National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi

COLLECTIONS

A number of prominent families and organisations are home to various collections of Chavda’s works.

MURALS

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Reliance Textile Industries Ltd., Bombay (1982)

Travel & Shows

With a career spanning over almost six decades, Chavda held 42 one-man shows commencing in Mumbai in 1945 with subsequent travel including to Ahmedabad, Djakarta, London, Paris, Singapore and Zurich. Between 1956 and 1963, Chavda also exhibited with the Bombay Group.