A rotund yet arty Ganapathy welcomes one to Nanappa Art Gallery. He appears to be presiding over the show dedicated to the late K.C.S. Panicker. T. Kaladharan’s fetish for interesting dates led him to organise a painting camp on 12/12/12 at Orthic Creative Centre. It saw artists spanning different age groups and media coming together to work and interact with each other.
The works that were done at the camp and some others are on show, which opened on January 15, the 36 death anniversary of KCS.
The inaugural painting at the camp was by Namboodiri, of a Ganapathy, the god of auspicious beginnings. C.N. Karunakaran, M. V. Devan, Nandan P.V., C. R. Manmadhan, Asha Nandan, Bindhi Rajagopal, T. Kaladharan, Ashanthan, Saju Thuruthil, Manoj Vyloor, Jayendran, Saranya P.T., Vivek, Maharishi Sreekumar and Deepthi Vasu are some of the artists who participated in the camp.
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Besides works of the artists who participated in the camp, there are works by S. Nandagopal (a pencil sketch), Anila Jacob (copper sculpture), Akkitham Narayanan (oil painting), Balan Nambiar (stainless steel sculpture), and T. Gopinath, all of whom are KCS’ students. These artists were invitees for the show, says Kaladharan. M.V. Devan, CNK and Namboodiri are other students of KCS whose works are on display. The other invitee-artists includes K. P. Soman, K.S. Radhakrishnan, Vasudevan Akkitham, Manisha Doshi, Anuradha Nalapat, Razia Tony, Rajan Krishnan, Koeli Mukherjee Ghosh, Parameshwar Raju and G. Rajendran besides others.
“KCS is probably one person who has done so much for Malayali artists of that time. Devan master and Namboodiri master came back from Cholamandalam and started the Kerala Institute of Arts which later became Kerala Kalapeetom,” says Kaladharan. There are four generations of artists whose works are on show, he adds.
It is a feisty mix and mash of mediums and sensibilities in an art gallery. It is as if there are many ways of creating a work of art as there are artists. K. P. Soman’s ‘Conceptual Craft’ in ceramic is a curious treat to perception, so is V.K. Rajan’s ‘Face’, a granite sculpture and K.S. Radhakrishnan’s ‘Maiya on Musui’ is more of poetry in motion than a sculpture. Other eye-catching works are by Rajan Krishnan, Nandan P.V., C. R. Manmadhan and Saranya.
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There are a few caricatures and paintings of KCS by Thomas Antony, Ratheesh Ravi, Prasannan Aanikkad and a couple of other artists. Most of the paintings executed at the camp stick to set sizes such as 20”x20, 12”x 12” or 18”x18”. “It makes handling them easy,” says Kaladharan. The show is a must see because of the works and the calibre of the artists.
The show concludes on January 24.