Akara Art

K. G. SUBRAMANYAN

Akara Modern

1924 -2016

Born in Kerala, Kalpathi Ganapathi Subramanyan was one of the leading artists who was a part of India’s Post-Independence search for identity through art. In 1948, he graduated from Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan. K. G. Subramanyan is among the few artists who have explored the possibilities of modern art from a different perspective. His human figures are derived from mythology and folklore in spirit. A painter, sculptor, scholar, and storyteller, Subramanyan was always at ease with diverse media, techniques, and genres. Subramanyan seizes his inspiration from indigenous Bengali artistic traditions, including the textile patas and Kalighat-style paintings. Yet, it was his hometown in Kerala that found reverence in his childlike drawings and sculptural toys. Subramanyan has often spoken of art as a language - the ability to express through epic narratives – transforming myths into reality.

K. G. Subramanyan became a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts at M. S. University of Baroda, in 1951. He also attended the Slade School of Art in London in 1956 as a British Council scholar. In 1966, Subramanyan travelled to New York as a Rockefeller Fellow. As an artist, he was a magician with his hands, but as a teacher, he was a catalyst who triggered ideas from all visual references of art history, connecting them to the rich diversity of craft, material cultures, and folklore that nurtured living traditions.

K. G. Subramanyan has received many illustrious awards, including the Kalidas Samman in 1981, the Padma Shri in 1975, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2012.