Thirty four years ago, he died. It was inspiring to sit with people who knew the legendary K.C. S.Panikkar well and who were groomed by him, at Nanappa Art Gallery, Orthic Creative Centre, Saturday last, where the art loving public had gathered to participate in the programme, K. C. S. Panikkar Smarana, on the artist-teacher's 34th death anniversary. M.V.Devan and K. Damodaran, his students, enlightened the audience about the ways, styles and artistic stamp of their beloved guru. C. S. Jayaram spoke about the influences of art in the days of KCS and how he was the link between Raja Ravi Varma and modern art as it was called then. How he held teaching sacred, at the Government School of Arts and Craft, even as he went overseas exhibiting his works, showed he was a real mentor, and did not look at art as a commodity, as it is today. Devan spoke about Cholamandalam Artists Village and the initial days there. A number of works by innumerable artists are on show at Nanappa gallery, including two portraits of KCS.
There was a Sahitya Sandhya the next day in which C. Radhakrishnan spoke. Akkitham Narayanan was also there. On Saturday, which will be part II of the exhibition, Vijayakumar will speak and the film, ‘Rhythm of Symbols', directed by P. K. Sreenivasan, will be screened. The exhibition is on till January 31.