Retrospective show on artist K G Subramanyan to be held from April 5

Bengaluru, Apr 3 (PTI) Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath is organising a retrospective exhibition of the seminal Indian modernist K G Subramanyan (1924–2016) from April 5 to May 5, celebrating his "one hundred years and counting."
    The exhibition, curated by cultural theorist Nancy Adajania, will be the largest in South India since the artist’s passing, B L Shankar, President of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, told PTI.
    It will contextualise and reassess Subramanyan's legacy within the larger cultural landscape of postcolonial India’s evolving modernism while reaffirming the continuing relevance of his artistic practice, he added.
    "The exhibition will also feature a significant amount of previously unseen archival material, including handcrafted mock-ups of children’s books, preparatory sketches for murals, and maquettes for his powerful mural 'The War of the Relics' (2013)," Adajania told PTI.
    The exhibition is being organised in collaboration with Kolkata-based art gallery Emami Art, which also hosted a centenary show in Kolkata last year.
    According to Adajania, the Bengaluru edition expands upon the Kolkata iteration by including an additional body of work that has not been showcased for a long time.
    "For instance, paintings such as Chinnamasta (1991), 'Girl with Cat Boy (1991), Birbhum Nativity (1991), Devi II and III (2008), and Madonna and Child (2005) have not been seen in public for the last two decades," Adajania told PTI.
    The Bengaluru edition also features K G Subramanyan’s historic post-cubist works from the mid-1960s, sourced from the Piramal Art Foundation, she added.
    "These works represent a major transitional phase in the maestro’s oeuvre. Additionally, KGS’s series 'At the Jincheng Hotel: Drawings from China' (1985), which captures his observations of everyday life in the villages and small towns of China, stands as a masterpiece of local micro-history," explained Adajania.
    Widely recognised as one of the most versatile and prolific artists of his time, Subramanyan was also a distinguished writer, thinker, and pedagogue, said Adajania.
    Subramanyan studied art at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, under Nandalal Bose, Benodebehari Mukherjee, and Ramkinkar Baij, and later at the Slade School of Art, London, according to a press release issued by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath on Thursday.
    The exhibition will trace seven decades of his artistic journey and will feature more than 200 works, including his early paintings from the 1950s, iconic reverse paintings on acrylic, gouaches, postcard-size drawings, and inventive toys created for the Fine Arts Fairs at MS University, Baroda, between 1962 and 1979, the release added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)