K. G. Subramanyan uses several devices in this abstract painting—flat colour planes, parallel lines that draw attention to the central core of the painting, crosshatching to create depth, and white as a stratagem of control. The resulting dynamism is playful while being suggestive of nothing. Here is an abstract that does not manipulate the viewer’s thinking in any known direction. It is free of encumbrance, bereft of interpretation, a painting to be enjoyed solely for itself—a claim few artists can make for their art.
published references
Singh, Kishore, ed., The Art of Bengal (New Delhi: DAG, 2012), p. 286 Singh, Kishore, ed., Indian Abstracts: An Absence of Form (New Delhi: DAG, 2014), p. 385 Tillotson, Giles, Primitivism and Modern Indian Art (New Delhi: DAG, 2019), p. 310
K. G. Subramanyan
Studio Interior
1964
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K. G. Subramanyan
Studio Interior
1964
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