Important Notice

A diverse artist who explored many artistic styles and mediums throughout his career, K G Subramanyan also devoted time annually to a toy-making project, usually coinciding with the Baroda Fine Arts Fair, which encouraged the use of Indian craft techniques. Subramanyan, who was curious about these traditions, designed an entire menagerie of wooden toys over the years, usually shaped like animals from a mock fable. The process evolved from... A diverse artist who explored many artistic styles and mediums throughout his career, K G Subramanyan also devoted time annually to a toy-making project, usually coinciding with the Baroda Fine Arts Fair, which encouraged the use of Indian craft techniques. Subramanyan, who was curious about these traditions, designed an entire menagerie of wooden toys over the years, usually shaped like animals from a mock fable. The process evolved from initial drawings, tested in plasticine or clay, followed by a prototype made of wood, which would be planed, joined, layered and adorned with materials such as leather, string, mirrors and beads. The toys, both objects of play as well as signifiers, "...recall the icon which in turn will recall ancient craft traditions, for the act of making must predate the iconography, the ritual or fun, to which the objects have contributed over centuries. Thus making his toys both conspicuously pristine, and mockingly funny Subramanyan activates his own manifold connections to artisanal practice." (Geeta Kapur, K G Subramanyan, New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1987, p. 7)

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