Exhibitions

Lot 86

K Muralidharan
Garuda

- Gods of the Hindu myth painted in colours of fantasy fill the canvas. Alphabets in Tamil float around so do flying fish, serpent headed men, elephants and birds. Murlidharan`s visual appeal is unique in contemporary Indian art, combining high seriousness and an irreverence that seems to have the flavour of the folk arts.

Murlidharan completed his studies at the Government College of arts and crafts, Chennai in 1980 where his teachers Alphonso, Munuswamy, R.B.Bhaskaran and Santhanraj influenced him. He spent a year in Delhi there at the Lalit Kala Akademi he worked closely with reputed artists such as J.Swaminathan and Manjit Bawa. They gave him the confidence to develop his own language by trying out new methods. After his return to Chennai Murlidharan developed a "guru-shishya" relationship with K. Adimoolam. The senior artist helped him to question his roots, allowing him to delve deeper into his artistic psyche.

"My work became a refined surrealism. The fish began to assume three heads; the Indian Hindu mythical lore became my storehouse. What I experienced I recreated in terms of my personality, my psyche" Says the artist

In the year 1989 he was selected for participation in the festival of India in Sweden. From that trip and the interaction with artists there, came the inspiration for mixed media.

" I built up my canvas as an actual process. I am fascinated with mixed media and I want to show the differing temperament of the materials I use. So I use sand for texture, saw-dust, jute, impasto color, distempers, plastic, industrial paints and whatever else"

On his continual interest in painting Indian gods, the artist has this to say: "I have never deliberately painted Gods because I am an Indian, but my lifestyle, my religious upbringing and background make me feel very comfortable. I`ve moved with them. I can feel it. No second thoughts. I don`t tell stories, its just inspiration, I don`t have any religious point to make."

Murlidharan says that he wants to strip down a particular concept of our mythological background in the Vedas to simple and straight form so that there are no pretensions of religious messages being transmitted.

The lyrical qualities of the Tamil script fascinate the artist. Their shapes are an endless inventory of the fantastic. Murlidharan is one of a long line of distinguished artists in Madras who have displayed a keen interest in using text elements in painting. He is also somebody who has given the question of Indianess a novel twist in his own wonderfully honest way. The last word goes to the artist:

" I am not a great intellectual. That stops me. It shuts me out from so many things. I want to be simple guy. When you like something, you show it. You show your joy!!" - Gods of the Hindu myth painted in colours of fantasy fill the canvas. Alphabets in Tamil float around so do flying fish, serpent headed men, elephants and birds. Murlidharan`s visual appeal is unique in contemporary Indian art, combining high seriousness and an irreverence that seems to have the flavour of the folk arts.

Murlidharan...

Other works of artist

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