Kashinath Chawan

*around 1950, India

Kashinath Chawan was born in Pune, India. He creates his drawings by using ballpoint pens on ripped up shoe boxes or pieces of used paper that he finds on the street.

He neither prepares sketches nor does he need preliminary drawings. His first lines are fine and imprecise. He then repeatedly draws small lines one upon the other so that thick lines ultimately appear. This technique allows him to realise sophisticated yet playful graphic forms and imparts his figures with a gentle, mysterious aura. Kasinath Chawan’s family is in the shoe business, and he has worked with shoes since he was 15. He dedicates himself to his drawings during the quiet hours of the afternoon. He is inspired by Hindu deities but also by the Mahabharata and Ramayana, two Indian epic poems, and by Bollywood stars. Kashinath Chawan’s work can be seen, for example, in The Museum of Everything and in the collection abcd/Bruno Decharme, France.

Selected works