K. RAMANUJAM
Akara Modern
1941 -1973
Born in
Chennai in 1941, K. Ramanujam became a national scholar between 1962-64. He was
a student of K. C. S. Paniker, the then Principal of the Government College of
Arts and Crafts, Madras. Under Paniker’s coaxing, he joined the Cholamandal
Artists Village, Madras. He picked up techniques quickly in his art school and
began painting art pieces that often combined the personal, the absurd and the
eternal.
He made
most of his drawings in pen and ink and deftly combined Eastern folktales and
fantasies using a Western baroque style. Ramanujam painted what he saw in his
dreams, a place where he could control who he was and how he saw himself. This
helped him create a unique style of art that greatly reflected his state of
mind, which was most often melancholic and depressed. Unlike, his personality,
his works were bold and intricate with minute details in his drawings.
Ramanujam
had developed his own technique by scratching the images and leaving a white
negative space in his works. He had a distinctive style and often used
techniques such as wash drawing, shading, and criss-cross lines to enhance his
works. Even when Ramanujam was starting to get recognized, there were moments
his mental health was digressing, leading him to cut short his life in 1973.
One of the famous Sri Lankan architect Geoffery Bawa, admired Ramanujam’s work
immensely and commissioned him to create murals for Hotel Connemara in Chennai.
In 1965, he
participated in the Commonwealth Arts Festival in London, national art exhibitions
of the Lalit Kala Akademi, and the group show in Mumbai, Chennai, and New
Delhi. Some of his works are part of the Collections at the National Gallery of
Modern Art, New Delhi, State Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, and the Chemould
Prescott Road, Mumbai.
Images
Exhibitions
