Nek Chand, Seated Figure, (1980-1990): The Friday Find

18 - 25 September 2026
Nek Chand in his office at the Rock Garden
Nek Chand in his office at the Rock Garden

"I made one thing, then a second, and then a third and I liked the results… I began creating a city of gods and goddesses.

 

You could see life in the rocks and see all the gods and goddesses in the rocks,"

  • This week we have a cement and tile sculpture as well as a rog doll by Outsider artist Nek Chand...

    Figures at the Rock Garden, Wikimedia Commons, shankar s.

    This week we have a cement and tile sculpture as well as a rog doll by Outsider artist Nek Chand (1924-2015). Nek Chand, born on December 15, 1924, in Berian Kalan, a village in what is now Pakistan. His early life was marked by displacement during the partition of India in 1947.

    In the wake of the upheaval, Chand settled in Chandigarh which was being transformed by French architect Le Corbusier and a team of Indian and international architects. In the process of development, numerous towns were demolished to make way for the new infrastructure. The detritus of the old settlements ending up as landfill. Piles of broken crockery, dismantled mopeds and bikes, the shining remains of glazed tiles, saris and broken bangles all became Chand's materials.

  • Working as a government roads inspector in Chandigarh, Chand began transforming a small piece of land into an extensive sculpture...

    Image of the Rock Garden, reproduced from The Collection, the Ruin and the Theatre: Architecture, sculpture and landscape in Nek Chand's Rock Garden, Liverpool University Press, 2007

    Working as a government roads inspector in Chandigarh, Chand began transforming a small piece of land into an extensive sculpture garden in the 1950s. Utilizing the rubble and detritus from the demolition he created sculptures depicting animals, humans, and fantastical creatures, works which blending elements of folk art and surrealism.

     

    "At precisely 5pm each working day, from 1958 until 1975, Nek Chand, inspector of roads for the Public Works Department of the city of Chandigarh, would climb onto his bicycle. But he did not head for home. Instead. he turned north, towards the Shivalik Hills and the damp, mosquito-prickling forest. The road, good at first, soon became a bumpy track and then disappeared completely. Dense brush tangled in his wheels. "There were no roads to come or go," he remembered. "Who would come here and what for?"

  • 'I made one thing, then a second, and then a third and I liked the results… I began creating a...

    Figures at the Rock Garden, Wikimedia commons, courtesy Anilsahu84

     

     

     

    "I made one thing, then a second, and then a third and I liked the results… I began creating a city of gods and goddesses. You could see life in the rocks and see all the gods and goddesses in the rocks,"

    Interview with Nek Chand

     

    Chand's 'kingdom of gods and goddesses' grew, until by 1975 it covered 13 acres. This was the year local authorities came to clear the forest…

  • Nek Chand at Pallant House Gallery, 2015 Photograph Oana Damir © Pallant House Gallery

  • "He risked losing everything at that point. The land was the government's, and his presence there illegal… city officials were so enchanted by what they found, and disarmed by the modesty of the builder, that they decided instead to encourage him.

     

    He was appointed sub-divisional engineer with a salary and 50 labourers to help him, and despite the usual administrative ups and downs-rows, money trouble, vandalism-his project flourished. Collection points for rubbish for him were set up round the city; hotels, hospitals and restaurants proved especially fruitful.

     

    The garden acquired monumental buildings in the Mughal style, and immense aqueducts hung with giant swings. Eventually it drew 5,000 visitors a day, second in India only to the Taj Mahal."

    Nek Chand's obituary, published in The Economist, 2015

  • Nek Chand, Standing Woman, 2006

    Nek Chand

    Standing Woman, 2006

    Over the next few decades his work was shown in Europe and the USA, exhibited by dedicated Outsider Art galleries such as Phyllis Kind Gallery in New York, and entered several significant museum collections including in Lausanne, and the American Folk Art Museum.

     

    As well as his stone and concrete creations, Chand also created rag dolls and installed them in his Rag Doll Museum, part of the rock garden's complex.  The site contains around 200 dolls made from material collected by Chand from tailor's shops in the 1970s. A variety of human figures, animals and mythical creatures are displayed amidst village scenes, with houses, trees and shops. They are shown engaged in activities such as cooking, celebrating festivals and weddings, smoking hukkahs, etc., and are intended to instil consciousness amongst the urban populace as to life in rural India.

    Enquire: Rag Doll
  • Fact sheet (two works): Nek Chand 1924-2015 Seated Figure, 1980-1990 Cement and ceramic tile Height 68.6 cm; 27 in Provenance...

    Fact sheet (two works):

    Nek Chand 1924-2015

    Seated Figure, 1980-1990

    Cement and ceramic tile

    Height 68.6 cm; 27 in

     

    Provenance

    Private British Collection

     

    Exhibitions

    Chichester, Pallant House, Nek Chand: The Rock Garden Sculptures, 2015

     

     

    Nek Chand 1924-2015

    Standing Woman, 2006

    Metal armature with salvaged rags

    62.5 x 32 x 14 cm. (24 ⅝ x 12 ⅝ x 5 ½ in.)

     

    Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist, Chandigarh, 2006
    Private British Collection

     

    Published

    S. Bandyopadhyay and I. Jackson, The Collection, the Ruin and the Theatre: Architecture, Sculpture and Landscape in Nek Chand’s Rock Garden, Chandigarh, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, 2007, illustration p. 76

    Enquire: Nek Chand, Tile figure