K G Subramanyan
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A profile
The Times of India, Jun 30 2016
Neelam Raaj
Man who broke barrier between art and artisan
As a muralist, K G Subramanyan painted many walls one of his most famous black and white works is wrapped around a Ka la Bhavan building in Santinike tan.
Rekha Rodwittiya, his student at MS University's fine arts department and a renowned Vadodara-based artist herself, says KGS encouraged students to venture outside the narrow pedagogical world of the classroom and introduced them to the rich and vibrant tradition of Indian craftsmaking.“He understood that contemporary art meant all the diversities and pluralities of India. It wasn't just an urban construct,“ says Rodwittiya describing `Manida' as an amazing art teacher.
KGS, who was painting till a month before his death, thought nothing of clambering up a scaffolding at Santiniketan to refresh his mural even when he was 80-plus years old, says Mumbai gallerist Geetha Mehra. In fact, `War of the Relics', his last major work that Mehra showed at Sakshi gallery in 2013 was 9ft x 36ft and was made when the 89-year-old was recovering from a hip surgery. The work, a scathing political commentary on the futility of war, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Documenta 14 exhibition in 2017.
In an earlier interview to TOI, the khadi-clad Gandhian had said that he wanted the mural to bring out the beastliness of human behaviour. “When I open the papers every morning, either somebody is being shot, raped or some city is being bombed. After seeing all this, you almost think we are becoming more beasts and less and less of men.“
Born in a Kerala village in 1924, Subramanyan stud ied economics in Madras and was part of the freedom struggle. In his twenties, he found his calling at Santiniketan, studying under stalwarts like Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. He went on to become professor emeritus at Visva Bharati.KGS moved to Baroda in 1951, mentoring several generations of artists.
His stature comes as much from his scholarly work as his art practice. Naveen Kishore of Seagull Books, which has published many of his works, has set up a museum in Kolkata which exhibits his sketches.
KGS, who could do monumental murals and tiny toys with equal felicity, has earned his place in the pantheon of Indian art.
