Enchantment and Engagement: The Murals of K.G.Subramanyan

A keen observer of the relationships between art, environment and society in different traditions, K. G. Subramanyan believes that, besides embellishing them, murals have to transform the look of buildings and add to their personality. Like architecture, murals ought to relate to their environment and address needs that go beyond self-expression. Subramanyan thus harvests the expressive powers of visual conventions and the different kinds of sensuousness that visual images can invoke through his controlled use of language. By employing a visual language or style that is not too loaded towards one meaning or emotion, he draws us into the image and nudges us to think. While over the years this has become a pervasive aspect of his work, it began perhaps in his murals and the desire to make them readable at many levels, co-created by the artist and the reflective viewers who reinvent it with every engagement.

Chronologically and photographically documented here for the first time, along with a detailed introduction and a dialogue with the artist, are Subramanyan’s murals, from 1955 to the present, inviting us to engage at the same time as they enchant us with their timeless appeal and beauty.