Vadehra Art Gallery presents a solo exhibition of artworks by artist K.G. Subramanyan. Curated by Professor R. Siva Kumar, The Last Decade is a centenary celebration of the artist’s life and the rich legacy that continues to shape the Indian art discourse till date. The show will open at our modern art gallery space on 20 September 2024 and remain on view until 9 October 2024.
As a post-Independence artist, Subramanyan revolutionized the Indian artistic philosophy through his versatile practice that was prescient of the region’s diversity and oncoming contemporaneity. Being an art theorist and an active participant in the nation’s freedom struggle, the artist contributed to the nation’s philosophical revisions around the phase of newly achieved sovereignty through his sculptures, drawings, paintings, murals, poetry, and academic texts. Drawing inspirations from mythological and traditional narratives, Subramanyan had built a theoretical and artistic oeuvre rich in historicity and sociopolitical awareness.
For the exhibition text, curator and art historian Professor R. Siva Kumar writes, “K.G. Subramanyan had a career of seventy years. This exhibition presents works from the last decade. Not comprehensively, but a particular aspect of it. The late works of artists with long careers are often characterized as a distinct category, done in a ‘late style’. However, not all long-living artists have late styles; some only have late works marked by a sense of ageing and impending death. Ageing is a biological, social, and mental phenomenon marked by decreased bodily abilities, reduced social life, and diminished cognitive power and memory.
Yet, for Subramanyan, ageing meant neither social isolation nor loss of cognitive power. He remained much sought after and interested in the world around him, and his mental and critical faculties remained sharp till the very end. The three large murals he painted between 2009 and 2012 – the first of these measuring over 2000 square feet and painted standing on scaffolding – demonstrate that he refused to be tamed by age, and that his ambition and artistic abilities remained undiminished. To him, age meant primarily the awareness that he had more life behind him than ahead, which, in turn, required living fully in the present and packing as much work as possible into it. His last two murals in Santiniketan, both covering entire buildings and done in a month’s time, underscore this. Or, as he often said, he wished to see a work completed within a snap of the fingers.”
Words Platform Desk
Date 24.09.2024