.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
K.G. Subramanyan is an esteemed scholar, prolific writer, revered teacher and skilled painter. His works are the product of careful study, and aim to blur and demythologise established distinctions between artist and artisan. The craftsman, the artist, the theorist and the teacher become attributes and skills not limiting descriptions.
The artist draws upon all of these qualities in his work, championing the figure of the craftsman and the storyteller. He creates fantastical, complex images that are steeped in myth and narrative. These works are timeless; at once ancient and modern, they evoke the potency of primitivism but implement this language in such a way that it reverberates pertinently into the present.
In the late 1970s, Subramanyan began to experiment with a vibrant two hundred year old craft tradition of reverse painting on glass. Using acrylic or mylar sheets, Subramanyan contemporises this practice through subject and material, noting "You can call these my bazaar paintings [...] paintings that deal with sensoriness of the commonplace, the strange provocativeness or the nudginess, of what you see down the street." (Artist statement, E. Datta, 'Each Time a New Beginning', K.G. Subramanyan, New Delhi, 2000)
The artist draws upon all of these qualities in his work, championing the figure of the craftsman and the storyteller. He creates fantastical, complex images that are steeped in myth and narrative. These works are timeless; at once ancient and modern, they evoke the potency of primitivism but implement this language in such a way that it reverberates pertinently into the present.
In the late 1970s, Subramanyan began to experiment with a vibrant two hundred year old craft tradition of reverse painting on glass. Using acrylic or mylar sheets, Subramanyan contemporises this practice through subject and material, noting "You can call these my bazaar paintings [...] paintings that deal with sensoriness of the commonplace, the strange provocativeness or the nudginess, of what you see down the street." (Artist statement, E. Datta, 'Each Time a New Beginning', K.G. Subramanyan, New Delhi, 2000)