Born in Nandanoor, Andhra Pradesh, Krishna Reddy was attuned to a rural life and festivities celebrating nature. From his early schooling to graduate studies at the Theosophical College, Chittoor, he practised art and was fascinated by the natural sciences. Krishna Reddy started his artistic practice from Santiniketan, to become one of the first Indian artists of his generation to work and teach internationally. Guided in his early years by philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, Reddy’s practice and teaching he started to draw patterns and scenes from Hindu mythologies that he had seen or heard. His interest in learning covered a diverse array of subjects including philosophy, painting, sculpture and printmaking, biology, botany and biochemistry. As a teacher, he spoke of artistic expression as a continuous process of learning, of reflecting upon one’s role in the universe, of being part of something larger, but also of recognising that humans were losing touch with the world, nature and spirituality. This thought closely resonated with J Krishnamurti’s approach to education, which emphasised a holistic understanding of life.
In honour of his centenary year, this exhibition celebrates Krishna Reddy as a perpetual student, and inspirational teacher.
Santiniketan was also a site of resistance, where several artists responded to India’s freedom struggle, through their art. In the same vein, Krishna Reddy too painted posters for the Quit India Movement and made ink drawings and sculptures of the suffering during the Bengal famine. Reddy returned to South India, where he helped to build the visual arts department at Kalakshetra, Madras (Chennai). Watching the Bharatanatyam dancers at Kalakshetra, he was perhaps influenced by the geometric fluidity of their movements and the ways in which their choreographies occupied space. His spatial explorations using geometrical patterns took abstract and semi-abstract forms in many of his prints. In Whirlpool, concentric oblong patterns collapse inwards, to a swirling, intense vortex; similar to a thumb impression.
Practising alongside printmakers from across the world, Reddy too broke away from dark, monochromatic traditional prints and engaged with colours. These encounters prompted him to revisit the technique of printmaking that he came to be known for intaglio. Along with Hayter, Reddy pioneered the printing technique of combining colours with varying viscosities Reddy sculpted the metal plate rather than merely creating a pattern and colours were then hand-applied to it. Wen different rollers, the print was transferred to paper. This simultaneous multicoloured viscosity printing technique involves tools, plates colours, and hard and soft roles and
Historically regarded as a lesser-valued practice compared to painting and sculpture this technique combines elements of multiple art forms-sculpture through plate, painting through multicolour viscosity and the spatial movements from performance. One of his Most of the prints in this series depict an abstract performer within a scaffold-like structure. Audience members are seated in concentric ovals with an aerial view of the ring, observing the clown suspended in space. Reddy experimented with the series for more than 25 years, framing and reframing different layers of emotions: sadness, happiness, perhaps even pretence.
A mind that can change becomes timeless, selfless, and overflowing with creative power; and it has the vitality and energy needed to plunge into the depths of reality and unravel it. It is a mind immersed in the process of everchanging reality, engaged and exploring. By placing itself in the flow with reality, it is in a deep state of learning.” Krishna Reddy believed that artistic expression arose from curiosity. From the 1960s onwards, he was invited to teach and conduct workshops in which he discussed his explorations while encouraging each participant to demonstrate their own practice.
He later started the Colour Print Atelier, inviting many Indian students to use the studio. Fostering togetherness, his teachings encouraged introspection and foregrounded critical and philosophical thinking, much more than actual techniques of printmaking. In creating an atmosphere of learning and collaboration, the students were inspired to emotionally respond to their surroundings to be part of the universal rhythm.
The artist’s later works has a tinge of sadness and is called ‘Rhyme Broken’, that has inspired the name of this show – ‘Rhyme Unbroken’, an apt ode to the genius of Reddy. On till Jan 5, 2025 at The Museum of Art & Photography Bengaluru.
Read the full story that first appeared in The New Indian Express dated Sep 29, 2024 here:
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