Journey & Vision
Formative years and roots in Kerala
Born in Kerala in 1939, Narayanan Akkitham trained at the Government School of Arts and Crafts in Chennai, under the teaching of K. C. S. Paniker and D. P. Roy Choudhury. In 1967, a French government grant brought him to Paris, where he entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Jean Bertholle's studio.
After a figurative period, Akkitham moved in the late 1960s towards a personal form of geometric abstraction.
His work never falls into decorative formalism: it is a true meditation on the invisible structures of the world. Triangles, circles, squares, lines and calligraphic signs become the elements of a plastic vocabulary inspired by Indian cosmologies, tantric diagrams, Vedic thought and the ancient mural painting traditions of India.
Geometry appears as a universal script, capable of translating the relationships between matter, energy and spirituality. Colour plays an essential role in this inner quest. Layered in subtle veils, tones seem to radiate from the surface of the painting rather than settle upon it.
Narayanan Akkitham has built an oeuvre that travels continuously between India and France. He has exhibited many times in India, where he enjoys first-rank institutional recognition, while also being shown regularly 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 European and Indian grounding has also been consecrated by several distinctions: he received the Lalit Kala Akademi Award three times (1963, 1965, 1966), the highest official award given to an artist in India, as well as the K. C. S. Paniker Puraskaram and the Raja Ravi Varma Award.