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India is now the world's fifth-largest economy, and its art market is experiencing steady growth. Against this backdrop of excitement, Galerie AB is pleased to present an exhibition dedicated to the artist Narayanan Akkitham from October 8 to November 7, 2026.

This event is unique for two reasons. First, it highlights a major Indian painter—a three-time recipient of the country's highest official honor—who remains too little known on the French scene, despite having lived and worked in Paris for over half a century. Second, it comes at a time when European collectors are showing growing interest in modern and contemporary Indian art, driven by the rise of an affluent middle class and the international opening of Indian institutions.

The exhibition brings together around thirty oil paintings spanning several decades of creation. It offers visitors the opportunity to discover a body of work that is firmly rooted in the 20th-century Western geometric abstraction movement, while drawing from India's symbolic and ritual traditions. This approach makes Akkitham a unique case: an artist who has built a personal visual language at the crossroads of two worlds.

For collectors and art lovers alike, this exhibition is a rare opportunity to see a significant collection of works by a painter whose market value in Europe, while still modest, is poised to follow the momentum of the Indian market. It also serves as a concrete entry point into a broader subject: how is Indian art becoming internationalized? How do its major artists position themselves between heritage and modernity? And how does Paris, where Narayanan Akkitham has resided since 1967, remain a hub for this dialogue?

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