Recognition
Awards & honours
- 2000 · Padma Shri, Government of India
- 2007 · Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France
- 2007 · Fellowship, Lalit Kala Akademi
Artist profile · Saraswati Foundation collection
Anjolie Ela Menon
A leading figure in post-independence Indian art, Menon is known for contemplative figurative paintings and richly worked surfaces that bring together personal, devotional and cross-cultural references.
Practice & perspective
Image, memory and the sacred
Born in West Bengal in 1940, Menon studied at Miranda House in Delhi and later printmaking at Atelier 17 in Paris. Across a career spanning more than six decades, she has developed an unmistakable language of still, frontal figures, atmospheric colour and carefully built surfaces. Her work draws on Indian miniature painting, Byzantine imagery and other visual traditions while remaining distinctly her own.
Her paintings are held in public collections including the National Gallery of Modern Art, Bharat Bhavan and the Peabody Essex Museum. She has also worked in stained glass, murals and other media.
Selected presentation
Exhibitions
- 2006 · Major solo exhibition, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
- Four Decades · Vadehra Art Gallery presentation at NGMA, Mumbai
- Work of Extraordinary Women · National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
Public collections
Collection
Works by Menon are represented in the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal; and the Peabody Essex Museum, among other public and private collections.
The featured image and linked record above refer to an artwork catalogued in the Saraswati Foundation collection.
Explore the collection
Paintings in Collection
Browse three works catalogued in the Foundation collection.
