K.G. SubramanyanView Artworks of K.G. Subramanyan Back to Artist

Born in 1924 in Kuthuparambian, Kerala, K.G. Subramanyan studied Economics at Presidency College, Madras. However, his passion for art began to pursue its due course when he visited Santiniketan to study at Kala Bhavan, the art faculty of Visva Bharati University in 1944 under the mentorship of Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinker Baiji. Subramanyan studied there till 1948.

K.G Subramanyan became a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts in M.S. University, Baroda in 1951. He also attended the Slade School of Art in London in 1956 as a British Council scholar. In 1966, Subramanyan travelled to New York as a Rockfeller Fellow where he painted on smaller canvases due to paucity of space, something that led him to experiment with diptychs and triptychs . In 1980, the artist came back to Santiniketan , a sort of symbolic return to his roots. He taught painting at Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University till his retirement in 1989. He was appointed a Professor Emeritus of Visva Bharati University.

K.G. Subramanyan’s visual language integrates the art principles of European modernism with indigenous forms of folk expression in India. As an artist, he has explored a plethora of mediums. He dons many hats together, being known as a painter, muralist, sculptor, printmaker, set designer and toymaker.

The artist’s works from the late 40’s reflect the influence of his teachers at Santiniketan. He reverted to small scale works on acrylic sheet revisiting his favourite themes of brilliantly coloured interiors, domestic animals and brazen women. He further added elements of Christian mythology and contemporary politics to these works.