The Magic of Making: K.G. Subramanyan

Director: Goutam Ghose
In collaboration with IGNCA, New Delhi

April 19, 2015 | 6.30 pm | Duration: 103 minutes
Visitors’ Centre, CSMVS, Mumbai

The film explores the life and work of K.G. Subramanyan, one of the foremost figures in modern Indian art and culture. His multi-faceted creative journey as painter, muralist, sculptor, printmaker, illustrator, and writer has made him one of the most versatile Indian artists in the post-independence era. Working with a variety of material and mediums, K.G. Subramanyan’s art practice has always branched out, across the borders of art and craft, classical and folk and environmental and pop art. Through his lucid and precise conceptual formulations, Subramanyan has redefined the premises of tradition and modernity, and his books are testimonies of his fresh perspectives and original thinking. His critical concerns have engaged with the local, the national, and the international in the arts, and a whole generation of artists and art historians have been deeply influenced by his ideas and perceptions.

The film is produced under the “Great Masters” series of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi, and directed by noted film director Goutam Ghose. It is woven around a long conversation with the artist-thinker, following his thoughts in the process of making. It dwells on his intellectual development through his direct involvement in the freedom movement, his studies in Britain, his special association with Baroda and Shantiniketan, his career as an art educator, and his varied engagements with institutional bodies.