Eclectic Madras eye
Descriptive Mode by Rm Palaniappan
The line was in important feature in the Madras Art Movement. It started quite unassumingly, from the Madras School of Art, where the artists were doing something rather different artistically, than the rest of the country.
“When we were studying at the Madras School of Arts, the movement had already started by it was not called as the Madras Art Movement. What the artists were doing turned out to be different from other states. The critics had called it Madras Metaphor as the style was distinctive lyrical and a blend of all things unique,” explains Muralidharan K, an artist who is participating in ‘Vignettes, Passages, Parables — The Madras Movement’, a group show travelling from Chennai to Bengaluru, along with senior artists like C Douglas, S Nandagopal and Rm Palaniappan.
The Madras Art Movement was expressive, recalls Nandagopal. “Apart from line, frontality was a predominant theme. In India, most sculptures are bas-relief. And, mass was avoided as much as possible. The artists in the movement incorporated the line into their work,” explains this sculptor, adding that the movement featured artists from the four southern states. “2D forms and asymmetry in symmetry was followed in this movement by artists from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The movement centered around the line and not really geography,” adds Nandagopal, the Honorary Secretary of the Cholamandal Artists Village.
The movement, that reached its pinnacle by the mid 80s, continues to live on through the artists who were inspired by its contextual uniqueness. Douglas points out that this movement still holds together the artists. “It is not about attaching a label but being inspired by its common truth. The calligraphic quality of work, veering away from mass, is still popular. The movement is not over and I hope that many more younger artists join in,” he adds.
Artist Palaniappan, the Regional Director of the Lalit Kala Akademi, reveals that this inspiration of linear sensibilities still continues for him. “I’m celebrating the lines and that are an important element of my work. You can’t create anything without lines. When we were in college, we watched artists from the movement working on the line. Astronomy plays an integral part in my work apart from concepts of time and space. I need the entire universe to create my drawings,” he signs off.
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