Renowned sculptor and painter KG Subramanyan passed away
Renowned painter and freedom fighter KG Subramanyan passed away on 29 June 2016 following a brief illness in Vadodra. He was 92.
• Subramanyan was a versatile painter who blurred the lines between art and artisans by making his mark in pottery, design and terracotta art as well.
• Born in 1924 in Kerala, he was a professor at various times at the Faculty of Fine Arts at MS University in Baroda and his alma mater, Kala Bhavan (Santiniketan) from where he finally retired in 1989.
• It was under the tutelege of Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Baij in Santiniketan between 1944 and 1948 that Subramanyan developed a penchant for art and social commentary through his works.
• Considered one of the pioneers of Modern Art, Subramanyan was also a freedom fighter and was imprisoned briefly during the Quit India Movement.
• His paintings experimented with the idea of the Indian myth from which he borrowed a number of times.
• Subramanyan was also an art historian and his body of work forms a significant document of Indian art history.
• In 1955, he received a British Council Research Fellowship to the Slade School of Art at the University of London.
• He was awarded with the Padma Vibhushan in 2012.