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K G Subramanyan
Untitled

- Let us move from Conflicts to Conviviality - Gayatri Sinha

K.G. Subramanyan has a long and interesting history with the mural, becoming, among the post–Independence artists, the most consummate purveyor of the form. The genesis of the present work was laid over six decades ago, in a student apprenticeship. In 1948 during his last year at Santiniketan, Subramanyan was a leading assistant of Benodebehari Mukherjee for his complex mural, on the life of medieval saints. The interplay of western and far eastern art traditions, the conceptual and poetic expanse of the work created a profound experience of spatial and manual dexterity. “Subramanyan assisted him at all levels and with great involvement, and Benodebehari found him dependable, even allowing him towards the end to paint a couple of figures”

Little beginnings have great issues. The 1950s and 60s were the period of the mural as public art and Subramanyan was central to the creation of that location for the artist. In 1961, Subramanyan already an established artist and pedagogue, received the important commission to create a mural on the façade of Ravindralaya, a new theatre in Lucknow built to commemorate the Tagore centenary. Subramanyan based it on Rabindranath’s play, King of the Dark Chamber, constructing the mural from terracotta tile-like units, that together create an intensely stylized narrative. Conceptually, the Ravindralaya mural was also close to the principles that Subramanyan has invoked in his practice – of operating on a creative scale that moves from the village, folk and artisanal with entertainers and all kinds of people from city and village…”. And from Nandalal, who stood at the apex of the Santiniketan their inherent utility and functionalism to the grand gesture and aesthetic aggrandizement of ‘fine’ art.

It would be easy to see in Subramanyan the distillation of his Santiniketan forebears – Ramkinkar Baij, Benodebehari Mukherjee ..............
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- Let us move from Conflicts to Conviviality - Gayatri Sinha

K.G. Subramanyan has a long and interesting history with the mural, becoming, among the post–Independence artists, the most consummate purveyor of the form. The genesis of the present work was laid over six decades ago, in a student apprenticeship. In 1948 during his last year at Santiniketan, Subramanyan was a leading assistant of Benodebehari Mukherjee for his complex mural,

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Lot 2 of 24

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ARTWORK DETAILS

K G Subramanyan
Untitled
Initialed in Tamil (lower right)
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 300 in (152.4 x 762 cm)
This work comprises five canvases, each measuring 60 x 60 in (152.4 x 152.4 cms)
Category: Painting
Style: Figurative

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Lot 2 of 24

ARTWORK DETAILS