K G Subramanyan’s art, an ode to womanhood

Presenting over 180 artworks of legendary artist, Late Kalapathi Ganapathi Subramanyan, depicting Indian women from various walks of life in different decades, a retrospective art series opened for art connoisseurs at a city art gallery recently. Titled, ‘Women Seen and Heard’, the exhibition offered a glimpse into the evolution of the artiste over the decades.
“KG Subramanyan was an artist who remained unaffected by persistent trends of his times and set a standard of his own. He didn’t restrict himself to any signature style and was equally comfortable with mediums like terracotta tiles, oil-easel, glass paintings and acrylic, among others. His vast repertoire of works speaks volumes about his versatility. He spoke very less, but let his artworks do all the talking,” said Naveen Kishore, of Kolkata-based The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, one of the organisers of the exhibition.
Subramanyan’s artworks are known for their layered and interpretative quality and the exhibits on display proved why. Featuring liberated women doing ‘ordinary’ chores, the paintings are an ode to womanhood. The colours, their clothes and the household activities depicted capture the moods of women from various walks of life.
While Subramanyan’s portraits of women from the 1940s and 50s seemed more direct than abstract, his later works explore a wider variety of themes such as nature, flora, fauna, architecture and a few inanimate objects. Be it a Lambadi girl eating an ice cream, a modern woman stretching her arms in a household or an
elderly lady’s gloomy expression as she stands in a balcony, the artist depicted how women express themselves through varied attires and in some cases when they are in the nude as well. Subramanyan’s fondness for mythology and artistic traditions of Bengal were very much evident in his works on Goddess Durga. In the series, the artist explores the human form by juxtaposing it with elements of myth, traditions and eroticism. The artworks also captured Subramanyan’s mastery over various mediums such as water colour on paper, oil on paper, water colour and pastel, the use of the ball point pen, crayon and pencils, among others.