| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Karunakaran, a diploma holder from School
of Arts and Crafts, Madras in the 1960s, has studied under renowned
artists D.P. Roy Choudhari and K.C.S. Panikker. His contemporaries
include leading artists like S.G. Vasudev, Akkitham Narayanan, Viswanathan,
Muthukoya, K.Damodaran and prominent members of the artists based
at Cholamandal, including Adimoolam. The late painter T.K. Padmini
was also his contemporary. Noted illustrator Namboothiri studied
at Madras School of Arts and Crafts as his junior. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
After completing his studies,
Karunakaran continued to live in Chennai for a few more years, dabbling
with art direction in films and making ad films. In fact, he was
in Chennai for 25 years. During that time, the Kerala Kalapeetom
(then Kerala Institute of Arts) opened in Kochi . Karunakaran returned
to Kerala in 1970, to take charge of Kalapeetom. For three years,
he continued at Kalapeetom, but later quit to setup his own private
art gallery, Chitrakootam, in Ernakulam.
Karunakaran's works are noted for his highly stylised figures and
the intricately decorative patterns that weave across the pictorial
surface. But, during his student days in Madras, he had done only
landscapes, recalls Karunakaran. "I had a fear of bringing
figures into my drawings or paintings," he says. For a year,
after leaving college, he had worked with the painter Srinivasalu,
who was a contemporary of K.C.S. Panikker. He was in charge of the
Design Demonstration Centre where Karunakaran worked for one year.
"Srinivasalu was greatly influenced by the work of Jamini Roy
and used to do very much stylised figures," recalls Karunakaran.
That was how Karunakaran started upon his particular idiom of heavily
ornate, stylised figuration. Later, the figures evolved more, under
the influence of Indian traditional murals and miniatures
Today Karunakaran works from his private studio set in his house.
He lives in Cochin, Kerala, with his wife, children and grand children.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
