| Story Text | [{"record_id":"0","storytext":"Sculptor, educator, and printmaker extraordinaire, Krishna Reddy is best known for his colourful abstract images made using innovations in printmaking techniques he pioneered. In 1978, he took his daughter Apu to a circus, where they witnessed a group of clowns performing. Reddy later recalled, \u201cThere must have been at least a hundred of them, performing their parts but simultaneously\u201d. This experience inspired an engagement with the contemporary human condition in his works from the late 70s to the 80s. \r\n\r\n\u2018Clown and Flying Swans\u2019 is a 1979 print from his Clown series. It is an early example of his fascination with the clown motif which would become a recurring feature in his works for the next two decades, allowing him to reflect upon artistic individuality in modern times. Reddy\u2019s dexterity with the print medium and ingenuity with form is brilliantly etched throughout this small but significant work. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":"Shreeja Sen"},{"record_id":"1","storytext":"The complex mix of colours here which evoke a carnivalesque vibrancy have been created using a process Krishna Reddy developed alongside Kaiku Moti while at Atelier 17 in Paris. Viscosity, as the technique came to be called, allows for printing with multiple colours on a plate in a single press. It involves using rollers of varied hardness to press varying viscosities of pigments into the layers of the plate, such as the varying layers of green, pink and beige here. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"2","storytext":"This is imprint 13 of 25 from this plate. Working with the viscosity process allowed for numerous creative variations of colour, and even prints made from the same plate manage to bring new meanings and visuals with each iteration. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"3","storytext":"The artist\u2019s experimentation with the printmaking medium allowed him to pioneer techniques which he then taught all over the world. He discovered that uncooked linseed oil reacted differently with different inks, resulting in the selective repulsion and mixing of colours, visible in this cluster of pink and vermilion edges on the green center. These exquisite hues are the manifestation of the union between medium and form. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"4","storytext":"Most works by Krishna Reddy are abstract as he found a sense of spiritualism in abstraction. His works often draw from nature or his personal life, such as the series of prints featuring his daughter Apu\u2019s childhood, or as in this case, the memory of a circus visit with her. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"5","storytext":"The figure of the clown embodies the state of creative potential in modern times\u2014performing in large groups the individual identities of the clowns have dissolved behind their performative identity. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"6","storytext":"The vivacity of colours in the image, combined with these stretched lines creates a sense of openness in the frame. Despite the off-center placement, the clown draws the viewer in, with the vision gravitating towards it, not unlike the swans that fly to it. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"7","storytext":"\u2018Here the clown reaches cosmic dimensions. When high above the rows of applauding seated figures, his mouth forms into the horizon to receive the swans, which are flying in \u2018V\u2019 formation.\u2019 Krishna Reddy on Clown and Flying Swans, New York, 1981. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"8","storytext":"Krishna Reddy\u2019s innate sculptural sense is evidenced in his deeply incised copper plates. In intaglio, copper or zinc plates are incised with the image to be printed and the sunken ridges hold the inks that create the print. Reddy treated his plates as sculptural surfaces, disrupting the flatness of the surface with layers of undulating ridges. The sculptural movements that created the ridges almost become visible in these lines. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"9","storytext":"This print is smaller than some of his other works in the Clown<\/i> series but the plate for it is extremely complex, visible in the textural variations in the design. \u2018The whole plate was carved, gouged and engraved by hand and machine tools. I found a couple of the machine tool heads showing their strong marks in carving the plate.\u2019 Krishna Reddy on Clown and Flying Swans<\/i>, New York, 1981. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"10","storytext":"The elongated lines in this clown image, and in other prints from his \u2018Clown\u2019 series, have visual resonance with the works of another influential printmaker, Alberto Giacometti, who Reddy counted as a major influence.","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""},{"record_id":"11","storytext":"These curvilinear strokes emanating from the rings on the right ripple and echo across the linearity of the grid creating a sense of movement. Reddy, in his almost singular devotion to the abstract form, found continued ways to disrupt the stasis and flatness of the print surface. ","initialize":"true","storytextauthor":""}] |
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| Art Artist Names Single | Krishna Reddy |
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