A constant learner that he was, even at 90 he appeared as if there is still so much left to be done. As K.G.Subramanyan sat at NGMA Bengaluru in December 2014, where the writer met him for her first and last interview with him, he, surrounded by his paintings, spoke about his artistic life as a natural progression. “I am a compulsive doodler. I have to keep on doing something or the other,” he said with child-like curiosity.
On June 29, we lost this pioneer of modern Indian art. Based in Vadodara, the 92-year-old artist was recovering from a surgery. He was Mani-da to the art fraternity which revered him as a great educationist. He taught at MS University in Vadodara and also at his alma mater, Visva Bharati University.
Born in Kerala, Subramanyan was studying economics at Presidency College in Madras and became involved in the Freedom Movement. He was imprisoned. After being released, he joined Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan to study under stalwarts like Nandlal Bose, Benode Bihari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. Bose and Baij were much older and senior to him but with Mukherjee he shared a friendly bond. In fact, he got interested in murals because of him in his last year in college, when Mukherjee allowed him to work with him on a mural in Hindi Bhawan in Santiniketan. He later went to Slade School of Art in London.
The recipient of Padma Vibhushan straddled different mediums and excelled in each one of them – painting, murals, sculpture, illustrations and even toys. He was an art historian too with an incredible body of writing on Indian art to his credit.
He was a storyteller extraordinaire, enchanted with mythology. But these stories got a new lease of life on his reverse painting on acrylic sheets, oil paintings, sketches and drawings. The age-old tales were placed in today's context and then reinterpreted and retold. Any ordinary scene from our daily life could trigger a thought in his mind and translate into fierce goddesses, demons, monkey god Hanuman, snakes….
And while he drew from a number of sources – mythological tales, miniatures and folk styles, Subramanyan gave it a unique expression. He maintained mythology crept into his work unconsciously. His imaginative minds could find mythological references in daily life. “Many years ago, when I was living in Jangpura in Delhi one morning, I saw a well-built woman beating up a man. He had apparently stolen something of hers. A little later I saw a woman trying to control a herd of buffaloes,” recalled the artist during the conversation.
Mythology is integral to Subramanyan’s oeuvre, but the artist was not a believer. “I am not a spiritual person either, but I do feel that there is some thing special in all human beings. We have beastly power, which when channelised into positive direction, humans become humane.” His works will continue to show that direction.
