Flowers In Moonlight

Artist: Manu Parekh
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 40 × 60 in
Year: 2021

This work reflects the artist’s enduring engagement with the metaphysical and symbolic dimensions of Indian spiritual life. In this vivid and dynamic composition, Parekh fuses architectural, floral, and figural motifs to explore themes of inner transformation, cosmic unity, and the tension between order and chaos, hallmarks of his mature style.

At the center of the composition is a monumental, radiant flower, rendered in electric hues of pink, orange, and green. This flower is not merely decorative; it serves as a symbolic axis mundi, a spiritual center linking the earthly with the divine. Surrounding it are other flowers, some connected by sinuous lines to a black boat in the foreground, an emblem of transition, pilgrimage, and the passage between realms. The presence of water, marked by the stylized river flowing under the full moon, reinforces this motif of journey and liminality.

Behind these elements are temple-like structures with domed roofs, darkly silhouetted against a bright, surreal sky. Each contains a vibrant interior scene reminiscent of folk or tribal art, brimming with animal and human-like forms. These nested scenes within the temples suggest layers of consciousness or alternate realities, and they also evoke the ritualistic and performative aspects of Indian temple art. The temple architecture itself echoes sacred spaces in cities like Varanasi, a recurring site in Parekh’s visual and emotional imagination.

The contrast between the naturalistic elements, flowers, river, and trees, and the highly abstract or expressionistic components, vivid color splashes, and internal temple scenes, mirrors the duality between the physical and spiritual realms. Parekh has long explored such dualities, often using symbolism from tantra, bhakti traditions, and folk art. The thick black outlines and vivid color palette further underscore his debt to Indian miniature painting and tribal visual culture, while the energetic brushwork and compositional layering place the work within a modernist framework.

This painting exemplifies Parekh transcends the boundaries between abstraction and figuration, modernity and tradition. He invites the viewer into a dreamlike psychic space, a metaphysical landscape where the sacred and the sensual coexist. In doing so, he situates his practice within a lineage of Indian modernism that is at once deeply rooted in cultural specificity and open to universal spiritual inquiry. The work resonates not only as a personal vision but also as a commentary on the continued vitality of myth, ritual, and symbolism in contemporary art.