Paintings from the Museum of Madras Movement

KCS Paniker (1911-1977) was one of the nine eminent artist of India as recognised by the National Akademi in 1954. He served as the principle of the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1957, and was highly instrumental in the establishment of the Cholamandal Artist Village (1964-67). He has been shown at the Tokyo and Venice Biennale's. 

This is one of Paniker's paintings from the Words and Symbols series done in the 60's. It belongs to the breakthrough phase of his last series of works. In many of his 'Words & Symbols' paintings, Paniker employed thin vertical and horizontal lines to cordon off space on the surface of the canvas, filling it with inscrutable notes.

SG Vasudev (born 1941) gained his diploma in 1966 from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras. He has exhibited his work at the Paris Biennale and the Cuban Biennale in 1986 and has been awarded the KCS Paniker Puraskar by the Government of Kerala in 2010.

SG Vasudev's oil on canvas painting titled 'Vriksha' or 'Tree of Life', represents protection, sex, growth, decay and death.

KV Haridasan (1937-2014) was a member of the Cholamandal Artist’s Village. He graduated with a diploma in painting from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1966. He was a professor and principle of the College of Fine Arts, Kerala from 1980-92. In 2013, he was awarded the Lalit Kala Puraskaram award by the Kerala Lalit Kala Akademi and in 2013, the ‘Raja Ravi Verma Puraskar’ by the Government of Kerala. 

Haridasan belongs to the group of painters known as the Neo-tantrics. This is part of a series of work done in early 2000.

SP Jayakar (1931-2005) gained his diploma in Fine Arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1951. Since 1966 he was a member of the Cholamandal Artists’ Village. He received Kalai Chemmal Award, Chennai in 2000. 

This is in a series of work the artist did using water-proof ink and colourwash. It depicts two sisters.

G Raman (born 1942), got his Diploma in Advanced Painting, Government College of Arts & Crafts, Madras in 1967. He was a State Lalit Kala Akademi Scholar. Between 1981 to 2010, he has received the Mysore Dasara Exhibition award, Tamil Nadu Ovia Nunkalai Kuzhu award and Kalai Chemmal Award from Government of Tamil Nadu. He has also received government fellowships. 

Raman's work depicts two musicians playing the Nadaswaram. Here too, the line dominates the painting which is characteristic of the Movement. There is a fabric-like feeling in his work which reflects a wealth of detail connecting the figures into one unified whole.

Akkitham Narayanan (born 1939) gained his diploma from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1961, and was one of the founders of the Cholamandal Artists village (1962-64). In 1971 he was awarded at the 4th International Festival of Painting, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France and in 2016 the Padmini Memorial Award, the PT Bhaskara Paniker Memorial Award and the Raja Ravi Verma Puraskaram. 

The painting "Untitled" was done in 2008. When Akkitham Narayanan arrived in Paris in 1967, his works were still figurative but he drastically fell into geometrical abstraction. Gradually he became more and more sensitised to Indian tradition, culture and ritual forms. This work is the output of the path he followed over the previous years.

P. Gopinath (born 1948) was a founder member of the Cholamandal Artist’s Village, Madras. He received his diploma from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1966. He participated in the III and IV International Triennale, New Delhi in 1975-78 and the VIII Biennale International De Art, Valparaiso, Chile. He also was a part of the ‘100 Year of National Gallery Of Modern Art’ exhibition in New Delhi in 1994. 

In this work, the Gopinath seeks two parallel quests: one is the achievement of pure plastic order, form order and the other relates to nature. In this series titled “Untitled” the images are in evolution. The idiom of forms imposes its own innate logic, revealing infinite variations and mutations as in nature. The mysteries of nature forms are realized with colour, light and space perceptions. The medium is acrylic on canvas.

R. Sarangan (1921-1997) gained his diploma from the Government school of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1952. He participated in the 2nd International Print Biennale, Bradford and 18 Indian Artists Exhibition, San Francisco in 1970.

Sarangan said, "This is part of a series of work I have done using Hindu symbols. The method consists of mixing marble dust with Fevicol and using a syringe to make the patterns on hard board, after which I apply oil colour to create the painting."

PK Gangadharan (born 1948) gained his Post Graduation and in Industrial Design Textiles from College of Art, Madras in 1971. In the same year he was awarded a Gold Medal at the Kerala Lalit Kala Akademi. 

Gangadharan's vision was intensely centred on light and the ways it transforms the visible world. This style of painting is characterised by short brush strokes of bright colors used to recreate visual impressions of the subject and to capture the light, climate and atmosphere of the subject at a specific moment in time.

J Sultan Ali (1920-1998) gained his diploma from the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1939-45. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1966 and in the same year was awarded the National Award of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. In 1986 he conferred Fellowship of the Tamil Nadu State Lalit Kala Akademi.

J Sultan Ali said, "Once I painted two paintings. Same theme, same form. I painted one in colour and the other in grey. Then I thought, why not deviate from this colour business? Why not paint just in a neutral colour? These pictures made people think. They started asking questions about the signs I have used, about the stripes and what it is all about. It is then that I thought that my purpose was more than fulfilled." Bhairava is the wandering form of Lord Shiva which guards the cardinal points.

Alphonso Arul Doss (born 1939) in Bangalore, graduated from the Government College of Arts and Crafts in 1962, with a Diploma in Advanced Painting. He was the principal from 1992-97 at the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai. 

Quite a few of Alphonso's early work was biblical in nature. The medium of this work is oil on canvas depicting a woman in a dream-like background.

MV Devan (1928-2014) in Kerala and he gains his Diploma from the Government of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1953. From 1963-68 he was the Secretary of the Madras State Lalit Kala Akademi. In 2002 he was Awarded the Ravi Verma Puraskar by the Government of Kerala. 

Devan is primarily known for his architecture using low cost materials. He, however started as a journalist and a painter. This picture depicts his father. The medium is oil on paper.

P. Perumal (1935-2019) received his Diploma in Advanced Painting from the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1957. He was on a Senior Fellowship by the Department of Culture, Government Of India from 1988-90 and the principle of the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1990-91. 

Perumal has painted a series of paintings based on villages celebrating Pongal (the South Indian harvest festival). He used the same technique of painting to depict the scene of crucifixion.

Rani Pooviah Nanjappa (1935-1992) gained her Bachelors of Arts from Stella Maris College, University of Madras in 1957 and a diploma from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1962. In 1965 she participated in the Common Wealth Art Festival in London. 

This is one of Rani's early works. It is an oil on board and depicts a woman. It is almost monochromatic. Her later works tended towards a slightly tantric bend and were geometrical in nature.

CJ Antony Doss (1933-2008) gained his diploma in Fine Arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1954 and later in 1958 was awarded the Government of India Cultural Scholarship. 

In 1961 he participated in the Paris Biennale Internationale and received the National Award of the lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. Doss' early works were mostly biblical in nature. His work was very linear. This work depicts the tragedy that befell the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

K Jayapal Panicker (1937-2002) gained his diploma in Painting from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras and was among the first batch of artists who moved to Cholamandal. In 1989 he won the National Award of the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. 

K Jayapal Panicker said, "This is in line with a series of works I have done using paper on which 5 or 6 layers of colour wash are applied to achieve a transparent and translucent effect."

M. Reddeppa Naidu (1932-1999) was born in Andhra Pradesh. He received his diploma from the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1960. In 1971, he exhibited at the 10th Sao Paolo Biennale, Brazil and Later in 1988 he was elected as a fellow of the Tamil Nadu Lalit Kala Akademi.  

Reddeppa Naidu is known mainly for his 'Deity' series. This picture depicts Ganesha and is an oil on canvas.

P Krishna Rao (1951-2006) gained a first class Diploma in Fine Arts from the Government school of Arts and Crafts, Madras. He was the principle of the same school from 1968-71.

Krishna Rao said, "This water colour of mine is done after seeing the Brihadeeswara Temple in Tanjore. Based on one of my temple drawings, the Madras State Emblem was created in the year 1948."

Thota Tharani (born 1949) gained his diploma from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1970. He went to study at Atelier 17 in Paris, 1976-77 and later to visit London and Germany in 1995. In 2001 he was awarded the Padmashree Award and in 2002 a Honorary Doctorate from the Satyabama University.

This work is from the Symphony Series, influenced by the masters of the western classics like Beethoven, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi etc. Thota Tharani said "their music, melody, depth and harmony is what I worked on in this 'Vivaldi' (a part of four seasons) sector of autumn and winter."

Tharani's uses the viscosity of colours with a movement of black lines moving as one music.The dots, squares, lines appear from nowhere only to enter into infinity blending into the hue of colours and music waltzing on my canvas.

V. Viswanadhan (born 1940) was among the first batch of artist to move to the Cholamandal Artist’s Village. In 1985 he had a solo show at the Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, France. In 2001 he has a retrospective at the NGMA, New Delhi and in 2008 he received Chevalier Des Arts et Lettres, Ministry of culture, France. 

Viswanadhan said "Art can have multiple intentions like an "idea" base: illustrative, disruptive, decorative, publicity, etc... and it can be as Kandinsky described "the inner necessity" of the artist and for the artist it is also  "the matter is the matter". The matter reveals the texture and the light like the inner call of a true musician or a poet."

L Munuswamy (born 1927) received his Diploma, Government School of Arts & Crafts, Madras in 1953. In 1968 he won the National Award by Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, and subsequently in 1976, the State Award from the Tamil Nadu Ovia Nunkalai Kuzhu, Madras. He was the Principal of the Government College of Arts & Crafts, Chennai in 1984.

L. Munuswamy was one of the senior teachers who guided quite a few painters of the Madras Movement. Known for his abstract work, this painting is done with watercolour on paper and is typical of his abstract works.

K. Muralidharan (born 1954) gained his diploma and post diploma (1976/78) in Painting, from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras. From 1997-99 he was a Senior Fellow at the Department of Culture, Government of India. In 2009, he was part of Indian art Show at the Texas University, USA.

For Muralidharan, 'Indian mythology' has been a constant source of inspiration. In this work, he has have taken a subject from the Indian epic 'Ramayana'.

In the story, during a battle, Laxmana fell by Indrajeet's arrow. On the advise of Jambavan, the bear king, Hanuman (the monkey king depicted here), finds the 'magic mountain' and brings Laxmana back to life.

In this painting, Muralidharan portrays a glimpse of the 'magic mountain'.

Working as a group under Paniker, the painters and sculptors evolved their work - the painters drew it finer and finer, their drawing turned algebraic, severely notational or calligraphic and well in line with the tradition of indigenous drawing.

P. Krishnamoorthy (born 1948) graduated from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1966. He worked as Honourable Secretary of Cholamandal Artists’ Village, a Vice President of Koothu Pattarai Theatre Group and as an active member of Progressive Painters’Association from 1964-70. 

Krishnamoorthy's early works were inspired by the miniature paintings of India. It had couples gamboling amidst folliage. This painting belongs to his later period. It depicts a man doing yoga.

M. Senathipathi (born 1939) gained his diploma from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1965, and was a life long member of the Cholamandal Artists’ Village. He was a Senior Fellow at the Department of Culture, Government of India from 1984-86 and in 2008 was awarded the Kalai Chemmal award by the Government of Tamil Nadu. 

A variety of distortions and exaggerations of forms were experimented upon, until Senathipathi was able to successfully visualize a definite conceptualized form that constitutes his figure of work. He has used texture-white on canvas layer by layer and then the colours are brushed upon the canvas. 'Lovers' articulate their mood. The medium is acrylic on canvas.

C. Douglas  (born 1951) gained his diploma in Fine Arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1976. In 1992 he received the National Award from Painting by the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi and in 1994 he received an invitation to work in Ceramics at the European Ceramics Center, Netherlands by UNESCO. 

These reflections on Douglas’ Blind Poets and Butterflies stem from his long-standing engagement with poetry and philosophy and his visceral commitment to painting. It is between poesis (making in the poetic sense) and philosophy (love of knowledge) that this body of work may reach consummation with the materiality of painting. Blindness for the poet is not a literal closure of vision, but a way of being, voluntarily chosen. The butterflies carry eyes on their wings to deter predators. The poet pretends blindness to ensure reverie.

K Srinivasulu (1923-1994) gained his diploma in Painting from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras in 1940.  In 1951, he exhibited at Salon de Mai, Paris and by 1953 won the President’s Award. In 1955, he had a one man show at India House, New York. Fellowships were conferred to him by L.K.A, New Delhi and the Tamil Nadu Ovia Nunkalai Kuzhu, Madras between 1961-64.

This is a painting done with tempera on paper depicitng a farmer ploughing his land with two bullocks.