G. RAMAN

Bio

Born in 1942, G. Raman completed his diploma in Fine Arts, General Drawing (Painting), Advance Painting from Government College of Art and Craft, Chennai. He lives a quiet, contented life in the same Chennai house in which he lived as a child. He has now lived there for more than sixty years, his home doubling for the last four decades as his artist studio. Raman’s art has warranted him high regard and opinion as he has received twenty-nine awards, three of them international, and is collected widely.

Harking back to the design of traditional Indian art, Raman is interested in the purity of line and the ornate patterns of motifs and symbols that can be used to delineate form and tone. He chooses generally to depict figures and events in Hindu mythology though he has journeyed into Christian imagery, tackling subjects such as Christ with Mary Magdalene and the Prodigal Son. Raman is known also for his portraits of contemporary India, events in village settings such as we view in ‘Tambura Player’ (2009).

Black acrylic paint is used as an undercoat though in the former he leaves a grey uneven border around the edge. It is onto this black background that the artist, with his unerring hand and impressive sense of design, creates his dense composition in white paint. One notes the bright, fluorescent colour in both canvases being used to further enhance the significance of the line. The bright colour, although often used sparingly, helps give the final painting a vision that sets his work aside from others in South India.