Curatorial Note
IntroductionThis curatorial conversation is an extension to the online exhibition Bahurupee in the Panorama: Ideas, Writings and Artworks by KG Subramanyan.Interview
AH: To begin with, I'll go with what is most evident: My question to both of you is that we do know that K.G. Subramanyan as a figure is extremely important within the subcontinent and a lot of work has already been done on Subramanyan, in terms of his writings, his practice and his pedagogy. What were your impulses to work with Subramanyan’s artworks and his archive, and how do you see this collaboration between two institutions would add to the already existing discourse on Subramanyan? SB: The starting point for the exhibition was a rather straightforward pairing of what was shared in MAP’s collections and AAA’s archives. The shared interest in Subramanyan arose because MAP had a number of his works across mediums and materials, including painting, terracotta etc. but what AAA’s collections had was over 130 digitised manuscripts of his writings on art published in magazines, journals, and the like. So, the initial impetus for this was to really jump into his writing and take that and the ideas therein as starting points to approach his work. Both Vaishnavi and I, sitting in Bangalore and Delhi, without any sort of direct connections to the artist or the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U Baroda, took deep dives into his writings (from 1960 to as recently as 2012) which are easily accessible as PDFs. It was quite a wide range that we were simply reading. Of course, we are familiar with his work more through large scale retrospectives and monographs, or his monumental murals in public space - all of which are great to experience! However, we wanted to approach Subramanyan less through the lineage of a master artist and more in terms of his thoughts on pedagogy and especially teaching, as that was such a major part of his life. We also wanted to learn how he spoke of his practice, his reflections over the years, his “visions”.
AH: To begin with, I'll go with what is most evident: My question to both of you is that we do know that K.G. Subramanyan as a figure is extremely important within the subcontinent and a lot of work has already been done on Subramanyan, in terms of his writings, his practice and his pedagogy. What were your impulses to work with Subramanyan’s artworks and his archive, and how do you see this collaboration between two institutions would add to the already existing discourse on Subramanyan? SB: The starting point for the exhibition was a rather straightforward pairing of what was shared in MAP’s collections and AAA’s archives. The shared interest in Subramanyan arose because MAP had a number of his works across mediums and materials, including painting, terracotta etc. but what AAA’s collections had was over 130 digitised manuscripts of his writings on art published in magazines, journals, and the like. So, the initial impetus for this was to really jump into his writing and take that and the ideas therein as starting points to approach his work. Both Vaishnavi and I, sitting in Bangalore and Delhi, without any sort of direct connections to the artist or the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U Baroda, took deep dives into his writings (from 1960 to as recently as 2012) which are easily accessible as PDFs. It was quite a wide range that we were simply reading. Of course, we are familiar with his work more through large scale retrospectives and monographs, or his monumental murals in public space - all of which are great to experience! However, we wanted to approach Subramanyan less through the lineage of a master artist and more in terms of his thoughts on pedagogy and especially teaching, as that was such a major part of his life. We also wanted to learn how he spoke of his practice, his reflections over the years, his “visions”.
