At Ashvita’s Chennai, the Body As Is explores the human form through SK Rajavelu’s drawings

For centuries, the female form has captivated artists across generations — from Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa to Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. In India, too, this fascination endures, from Raja Ravi Varma to Amrita Sher-Gil, where female portraiture has long remained central to artistic discourse.

At Ashvita’s in Chennai , that dialogue continues through the works of the late artist SK Rajavelu. Titled The Body As Is , the exhibition explores the human form through precise, unbroken contours.