Anjolie Ela Menon

About

Indian born artist Anjolie Ela Menon is a legendary painter globally recognized for reflecting suggested moods, personal links, and emotions in her evocative images. Her work displays intense and effective gradations of texture and tone. She is widely recognized for her Window series, wherein she demonstrated the artistic usage of cubism and simplicity to portray unpretentious objects in a creative way. She prefers to paint on masonite and wood surfaces.

Born in a Bengali-American family in the year 1940, she is a well-known muralist. At the age of 15, she was an expert at painting. She sold a few of her artworks in her early age itself. She exhibited her solo paintings at the age of 18, which included a total of 53 paintings. After completing her studies, she married an Indian Navy officer, Raja Menon. Since then, she has worked and lived in India, U.S., Germany, U.S.S.R, and England. Anjolie Ela has represented India in several shows.

Education & Work

She completed her academics from Lovedale School in Tamil Nadu and graduated in English Literature from the Delhi University. She attended J.J. School of Arts in Mumbai (Bombay) for a brief spell and later studied art from the Atelier Fresque of Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. She extensively traveled in west Asia and Europe for studying byzantine and Romanesque art.

Anjolie Ela Menon, in her days, profoundly admired the work of famous artists like Mohan Samant, Amrita Shergil, Modigliani and M F Husain. After drawing inspiration from multiple art styles, she developed her own style that exhibited a strong influence of the European culture. Her style is not restrained to a particular genre or school of thought. She mainly works with oil and mixed media, and her immaculate paintings reflect different chapters of her life. Her work displays a deep ideology towards natural beauty as well as sensitivity of human nature, which is beautifully portrayed as autobiographical, interpretative, and subjective impressions in the realms of art. Menon, in the recent years, has started experimenting with different forms and shapes in Murano glass sculptures with ethereal and divine sense of touch.

She has displayed more than 30 solo exhibitions in various countries, including Rabindra Bhavanand Shridharani Gallery in New Delhi, Doma Khudozhinkov in USSR, Academy of Fine Arts in Calcutta (Kolkata), Taj Gallery in Bombay, Maya Gallery in Hong Kong, Black heath Gallery in London, and Winston Gallery in Washington. Ms Menon has also participated in various international shows in the U.S., Russia, Japan, and France. Besides displaying her work in corporate and private gallerias, her collection has been acquired by several museums located in India and abroad. Recently a book has been published based on her life and work.

Awards and Accolades

Anjolie Ela Menon has won laurels across the globe andis honored with Padma Shreeby the Indian Government. She has earned “maverick” title for her extensively exhibiting paintings and is regarded as one of the greatest ambassadors representing the country in Indian arts. She recently received a lifetime achievement award in 2013 by the Govt. of NCT, New Delhi.

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