There seems to be a strong relationship between the artists and the place that inspires them to do great pieces of art. Paris is a place that attracted artists from all over the world. There are cities which inspire art and there are others that patronise art.
Though Vijayawada neither patronised nor inspired him with its beauty like in the case of Paris, Koppada Srinivas, known to all by the artist’s name of K.S.Vass, produced a huge volume of art right here in the city.
K.S.Vass is the son of noted art teacher and artist Koppada Venugopalam. He received training directly from his father who moved to Bezawada (the old name of Vijayawada) after retirement. Mr Vass was born in Gudivada when his father worked as an art teacher at the Municipal High School.
Mr Vass secured a diploma in art in the same way hundreds of his father’s students got it.
Noted in Venugopalam’s students are Padmasri winner S V Rama Rao, Kalaratna B A Reddy, Cine Art Director Kaladhar, artists S Suranna and L.S.Babjee. Mr Vass produced a large amount of work right here in Vijayawada.
Coffee table book
In a bid to pass on his “Spirit and Works” the artist has published his best works in the form of a coffee table book. Founder of Sanskriti Rural Art Centre, artist and writer B Padma Reddy who knew Mr Vass since he was a boy in a forward to the book wrote that the artist had an “introspective mind uncompromising to the notions of traditional beauty” even while he legitimised the “other side—dark, sinister and skewed version of beauty. She said that art was a compulsion that was destined to happen to Mr Vass.
Art historian Anand Gadapa wrote in the book that “making and meaning is not a complex agenda” with the artist, his work could be seen more as a “flux of artistic emotion.”
The Coffee table book has 80 prints of the artist’s works and also lists the exhibitions he conducted and the awards he won.
