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India is now the world’s fifth-largest economy, and its art market is experiencing sustained growth. Against this vibrant backdrop, Galerie AB is delighted to present an exhibition dedicated to artist Narayanan Akkitham from October 8 to November 7, 2026.
Akkitham Exhibition. The event is remarkable for two reasons. First, it highlights a major painter in India—three-time recipient of the country’s highest official distinction—who remains relatively little known on the French scene, even though he has lived and worked in Paris for more than half a century. Second, it comes at a time when European collectors are showing increasing interest in modern and contemporary Indian art, driven by the emergence of an affluent middle class and the growing international outlook of Indian institutions. The exhibition brings together around thirty oil paintings on canvas spanning several decades of creative work. It gives visitors an opportunity to discover a body of work firmly rooted in the explorations of 20th-century Western geometric abstraction while drawing on India’s symbolic and ritual traditions. This approach makes Akkitham a unique case: an artist who has developed a personal visual language at the crossroads of two worlds. For collectors and art enthusiasts alike, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see a substantial group of works by a painter whose market value, still modest in Europe, is expected to follow the momentum of the Indian market. It also provides a tangible entry point into a broader subject: How is Indian art becoming international? How do its leading artists position themselves between heritage and modernity? And how does Paris, where Narayanan Akkitham has lived since 1967, remain a hub for this dialogue? Narayanan Akkitham in his studio - Galerie AB; Credits: © Cornelis Van Voorthuizen Who is Narayanan Akkitham? Born in Kerala in 1939, Narayanan Akkitham trained at the Government School of Arts and Crafts in Chennai, where he studied under K. C. S. Paniker and D. P. Roy Choudhury. In 1967, a French government scholarship enabled him to move to Paris. He then joined Jean Bertholle’s studio at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. After a figurative period, Akkitham turned to his own distinctive form of geometric abstraction in the late 1960s. His work never descends into decorative formalism: it is a genuine meditation on the world’s invisible structures. Triangles, circles, squares, lines, and calligraphic signs become the elements of a visual vocabulary inspired by Indian cosmologies, tantric diagrams, Vedic thought, and the mural traditions of ancient India. Geometry appears as a universal language capable of expressing the relationships between matter, energy, and spirituality. Color plays an essential role in this inner quest. Layered in subtle veils, the tones seem to radiate from the surface of the painting rather than rest upon it. Narayanan Akkitham has created a body of work that moves continuously between India and France. He has exhibited many times in India, where he enjoys the highest level of institutional recognition, while also being regularly shown in France, Japan, Germany, and Poland. His paintings have entered major public collections, including the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the French Ministry of Culture, and the National Museum in New Delhi. This dual presence in both Europe and India has also been recognized through several awards. He received the Lalit Kala Akademi Award three times (1963, 1965, 1966), the highest official honor awarded to an artist in India, as well as the K. C. S. Paniker Puraskaram and the Raja Ravi Varma Award, confirming the enduring importance 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 • Ministère des Affaires culturelles, Paris, France • Bibliothèque nationale de France • Préfecture de Paris, France • Musée Hyacinthe-Rigaud, Perpignan, France • Wilhelmshaven Museum, Germany • Glenbarra Art Museum, Japan • Asia and Pacific Museum, Warsaw, Poland • Musée d'Art Sacré (MOSA), Durbuy, Belgium
Admission: Narayanan Akkitham From October 8 to November 7, 2026 Opening reception: Thursday, October 8 from 6 p.m. 5 rue Jacques Callot, 75006, Paris Tuesday to Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Source: paris.fr — photo: Galerie AB - Agnès Aittouares