KG Subramanyan: A luminous star on the Indian art horizon

Born at Kuthuparambu in north Kerala on February 15, 1924, Subramanyan was irresistibly drawn to art objects and events since his childhood. His father, Ganapati Iyer, a connoisseur of Carnatic music, was a surveyor in the revenue department while his mother, Alamellu was fond of the performing arts.

Education

He studied economics at Presidency College, Madras, and then joined Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati University in 1944 and graduated in 1948. At Kala Bhavana, he studied under the the tutelage of pioneers of modern Indian art like Nandlal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. In 1956, he received the British Council Research Fellowship and briefly studied at the Slade School of Art, University of London.

Career

In 1951, he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts in M.S. University in Baroda. Thereafter he was the British Council Research Scholar, UK, from 1955-56 and was deputy director (design), All India Handloom Board, Bombay, from 1959-61. He also worked as Reader in Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda from 1961-65. In 1966, he did a short stint in New York as a Rockefeller Fellow. Fourteen years later, Subramanyan went back to Santiniketan to teach in his alma mater Kala Bhavan as a professor in painting, which he continued till he retired in 1989. In the same year, he was made a Professor Emeritus of Visva Bharati.

Awards and achievements

Subramanyan received numerous awards for his artistic contributions. Mumbai Art Society Award (1957), Shiromani Kala Puraskar (1994), Medallion of Honourable Mention, Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil, (1963), Lalit Kala Akademi (1965), Gagan-Aban Puraskar (1991), The First International Triennale (1968), D.Litt. (Honoris Causa), Assam University, Silchar (2011), Dhirubhai Thakar Savyasachi Saraswat Award (2015) are among prestigious awards and honorary positions he achieved.

He was associated with All India Board of Technical Studies in Applied Art, Gujarat Lalit Kala Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi. He was also a member of the Governing Council, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and Siksha-samiti and Karma-samiti of Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, and All India Handloom and Handicrafts Board.

He has also been on the Board of studies of M.S. University, Baroda; Benaras Hindu University, Benaras; Punjab University, Chandigarh; College of Fine Arts, Trivadrum, Kerala; Faculty of Fine Arts, Bombay University; Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta etc. and a member of the Editorial advisory Board of Leonardo.

Personal life, legacy & death

Towards the later days of his life, he resided in Baroda, with his daughter, Uma. Though he withdrew his inspiration Indian legends and folklore, his works are universal in their appeal and have been exhibited in several solo shows throughout his career. His versatility comes partly from the diverse materials he worked with as a painter, muralist, printmaker, relief-sculptor and designer, and partly from layered richness of his visual language. He has also authored many illustrated books. When God First Made the Animals He Made Them All Alike, The Butterfly and the Cricket, Our Friends the Ogres are some of them.

He passed away in Baroda on June 29, 2016. His wife, Sushila, predeceased him a decade ago.

Interesting Facts

During the Quit India movement in 1942, Subramanyan, known for his Gandhian ideology, became a leading student activist and led protests which got him arrested. He was sent to jail for six months in 1943.

Subramanyan was greatly influenced by folk art from Kerala, Kalighat painting and Pattachitra from Bengal and Odisha, as well as Indian court paintings. These helped him master his artistic abilities.

There have been numerous retrospective shows of Subramanyan. KG Subramanyan, a Retrospective was the fourth and largest, curated by R. Siva Kumar at the National Gallery of Modern Art.

In 1966, Subramanyan also travelled to New York as a Rockefeller Fellow where he painted on smaller canvases due to shortage of space which also led him to experiment with diptychs and triptychs.

The artist left the images untitled, letting the viewer decode the symbolism behind them. In a 2014 interview to a website, he said that explaining an image would “destroy the mystery of its birth.”

Source: Wikipedia, livemint.com, hindustantimes.com, kg-subramanyan.com