Important Notice

K. G. Subramanyan, born in Kerala in 1924, spent much of his career perfecting a synthesis of Indian folk art and contemporary themes on his canvas. Santiniketan, where the artist initially trained under Benode Behari Mukherjee and eventually retired to in 1980, deeply influenced his work with its tripartite philosophy of tradition, nature, and freedom of expression. From an early age, Subramanyan drew inspiration from traditional craftsmen and... K. G. Subramanyan, born in Kerala in 1924, spent much of his career perfecting a synthesis of Indian folk art and contemporary themes on his canvas. Santiniketan, where the artist initially trained under Benode Behari Mukherjee and eventually retired to in 1980, deeply influenced his work with its tripartite philosophy of tradition, nature, and freedom of expression. From an early age, Subramanyan drew inspiration from traditional craftsmen and his natural environs, and exercised his creative freedom in melding them to form his unique idiom. “His paintings have a Matisse-like ornamentation with the directness of Kalighat pats in a spatial framework comparable to the bewitching eighteenth-century Malwa miniatures. Courtesan-like women often appear in them not only to seduce, but also to tease, provoke and amuse, lending his work a delightful humour” (Balraj Khanna and Aziz Kurtha, Art of Modern India, Thames and Hudson, 1998, p. 39).

It is this distinctive language that “imposes an open-endedness on his narratives. Tantalisingly ambivalent to the viewers, it encourages them to enter into an imaginative interaction with this work and to open up the narrative from different contact points” (R. Siva Kumar, K. G. Subramanyan: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Modern Art, 2003, p. 39).

It was in the 1970s, whilst teaching at Baroda University, that Subramanyan first began painting what he termed `interiors`. According to Amrita Jhaveri, the artist`s interiors, architectonically composed out of several people and household objects like food items, flowers, and carpets, “…are patently romantic. Abstract elements alternate with figurative ones; beds and their sleeping occupants evoke a languid atmosphere of rest and relaxation. Everything is fragmented with shapes echoing one another, or decorative scribbles that tie the composition together” (A Guide to 101 Modern & Contemporary Artists, Indian Book House, 2005, p. 89).

In this intricately constructed canvas from 1997, separate windows offer glimpses into the artist`s idea of household life – a man reading a newspaper, a woman getting out of bed, and girls in the garden with a pair of birds overhead. With the warm palette he uses, this motley cast of characters contributes to the painting`s overall atmosphere of a fresh spring morning – the season that Subramanyan indicates in its title.

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