'Goats, Woman', by K G Subramanyan, painting, oil and watercolour on acrylic sheet, India, 1980

The painting depicts a nude woman on a stool with a goat on her lap. The head of another goat seen through a window beyond. The subject matter explores female sexuality in a playful manner. The woman has a red bindi on her forehead, wears two blue spherical flowers and holds onto two blue flowers with her right arm.

The artist's style evidences both Matisse's influence whilst maintaining his links with Indian art. In addition, the flat colour and gold background make their own brash contribution to his characterisation of his subjects. This painting on acrylic sheet was meant to replicate traditional glass paintings from South India.

Given by K.G.Subramanyan. Rp 84/1039

K.G. Subramanyan is celebrated as much for his wide-ranging scholarship as for his artistic output. Born in 1924 in a Keralian village, Subramanyan initially studied economics at Presidency College in Madras. He was actively involved in the Indian freedom struggle from British rule and was a firm believer of Gandhian principles. For this reason, he was imprisoned and banned from joining all government colleges.

From 1944 to 1948, Subramanyan studied at Kala Bhavan, the art faculty of Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan, under the tutelage of modern Indian art pioneers including Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij. In 1951 he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts at M.S. University in Baroda. In 1956 he went to London and studied at the Slade School of Art as a British Council fellow. From 1959 to 1961, he became deputy director of design at All India Handloom Board in Bombay and continued to be a design consultant until 1966.

In 1966 and in 1967 he went to New York as J. D. Rockefeller Fellow. From 1980 to 1989, he taught painting at Santiniketan. In 1975 and 1976, he attended the World Craft Council and lectured at various Canadian universities. In 1989 he was made a Professor Emeritus at Visva Bharati. From 1987-1988, he was an Oxford Christensen Fellow in St. Catherine's College.

In his work, Subramanyan incorporates a variety of techniques. Often he includes weaving and toy-making in an attempt to blur the Western distinction between fine art and craftsmanship. The artist is also responsible for revitalizing many indigenous craft techniques such as the use of terracotta relief tableaux and glass painting. His oeuvre can roughly be divided into three categories: large relief murals, terracotta sculptures, paintings and drawings. His boldest and most ambitious creations to date consist of relief murals and terracotta tableaux with a narrative content. Their importance is further increased by the fact that relief sculpture, a millennial indigenous craft technique, is almost entirely absent from the contemporary Indian art landscape.

As well as being a prolific artist, Subramanyan has written extensively on art history and Indian art. In 1975 he was awarded the Padma Shree by the government of India and in 1981 the prestigious Kalidas Samman art award by the government of Madhya Pradesh. In 1922 he received a Honoris Causa from the Rabindra Bharati University in Calcutta and in 1993 became a Fellow of Lalit Kala Akademi in Kerala. Subramanyan lives in Baroda with his wife (2010).

In this painting, the subject matter explores female sexuality in an explicit yet playful manner. The work depicts a nude woman on a stool with a goat on her lap. In the background, the head of another goat seen through a window beyond. We observe a red bindi on the woman's forehead as well as two blue spherical flowers in her hear. In her right arm, the woman holds onto two blue flowers in a somewhat contrived way. The artist's style evidences both Matisse's pictorial influence whilst maintaining his links with Indian art of Kalighat. In addition, the flat garish colours and the gold background make their own brash contribution to his characterisation of his subjects.

IS.184-1984