A Look At three Madras Artists

Nandagopal in Delhi…… and Narasimhalu & Udhayakumar in Madras

S. Nandagopal.

Art Alive Gallery New Delhi, has been presenting “The Metaphysical Edge of Sculpture” – a solo exhibition of S. Nandagopal’s sculptures.

Sunaina Anand, Director of the Gallery, writes “Nandagopal’s contribution to the art world is unparalleled. At this exhibition, the artist, in a departure from his previous array of works in brass and silver-plated sculptures, has brought in colour in a very distinctive manner. His innovative use of colour lends itself to forms and figures that emerge in the process of a creative synthesis of the past and the present.
Nandagopal is one of the few sculptors continuing the tradition of frontality and linearity in sculpture, one of the defining characteristics of the Madras Movement in contemporary Indian Art.

Nandagopal himself states, “My sculpture is not fully three-dimensional. But nor is it a relief to be placed against a wall. The gamut of Indian sculpture is really bas-relief. The great ‘Arjuna’s Penance’, the world’s largest bas-relief, never for a moment makes you wish it were a sculpture in the round. The necessity never arises. Nor is the great Nataraja idol a three-dimensional sculpture in that sense. It has a certain frontal aspect that does not make you in the least curious to see what lies at the back. I remember once the critic Josef James referred to my sculpture as a sort of skin removed from a three dimensional sculpture and laid flat on one plane. That may be exactly what my sculpture is all about. The figure, however, can never cease to attract me and frankly I can never think otherwise. It is strange that, when anyone is confronted with an abstract sculpture, he hasn’t much to say by way of criticism. But when faced with a figurative one, he immediately comments on the nose being too long or the eyes being wonky, and so on. This is because he is faced with himself. He recognises all the imperfections. I do believe that man will always be man’s greatest subject.”

K. Narasimhalu

K. Narasimhalu and R. Udhayakumar are very special artists who recently held a very special exhibition.
K Narasimhalu (40 years) is a man who was affected by Cerebral Palsy in childhood. He cannot walk and talk properly. Unable to use his hands, he manages to do everything deftly with his two feet. He is mobile by pushing himself on a wheeled wooden board. He was a topper in Class X and XII. He has accomplished basic computer application in HTML, operating the keys/mouse using his feet/toes! Despite all disorders he has taken life as a challenge and uses his legs to do all his work, right from knitting to eating, drinking, operating the computer, hand embroidery and the cell phone as well.

Three of his 40-foot embroidered works each took him 18 painstaking months.

R. Udhayakumar

Udhayakumar (41) has had a life that is an inspirational journey of Art …. and a fight against Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). His paintings are inspired by his imagination and dreams. Udhayakumar developed his artistic ideas and concept by watching art/culture on television. He has challenged life, not succumbing to the ailment which made his whole body static.

He was born a normal child. At 10 months he was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), an ailment that affects the neurons of the spinal cord and brain stem. It slowly arrested his whole bodily movement. However he completed his secondary schooling and was awarded the best student prize for receiving high marks in Board exams. His parents and teachers discovered his inclination towards painting/art when he was in his second grade. He discontinued his studies after the 10th due to his ailment and, since then, painting has been his only passion. At the age of seven, he participated in an exhibition organised by the Victoria Technical Institute in 1982. Since then, he has conducted several solo exhibitions. His staple diet for years has been steamed rice and vegetables; only when beaten and filtered is he able to drink it. Yet he creates magic with his brush.

The 10-day long charity art show and sale was organised by the HeART BEAT Foundation, a family trust of V S Ramana, a professional in Advertising, PR, Communications and CSR, now with L&T.

HeART BEAT Foundation has so far held three such shows in Chennai and Pondicherry and been able to raise Rs. 6.50 lakhs – 100 per cent of the earnings through art sale go only to benefit the needs of the specially-abled artists.
“My appeal to art lovers, architects, interior designers and corporates in Chennai is that, while there will be a large space on your walls for the works of master artists, at homes and in offices, please do consider a good portion of this kind to deservingly support such specially-abled artists. These would embellish the decor, enhance their esteem – and this is CSR as well,” says Ramana. – (Courtesy: HeART BEAT Foundation.)

Rare sightings at Guindy Park

Lesser Whitethroat.

Two rare sightings at Guindy National Park in March, by Vikas Madhav, were the Taiga Flycatcher (top) and Lesser Whitethroat (bottom).

Raptor watch

Taiga Flycatcher.

A raptor watch hotspot is Thenneri, 55kms from the city, off the Bangalore Highway. Of the twenty commonly seen raptor species in and around Chennai, 16 have been spotted here in the last 2-3 years. They are: Common Kestrel (Wintering), Red-necked Falcon (Breeding resident), Peregrine Falcon (F.P. calidus-Wintering), Shaheen Falcon (F.p. peregrinator – Summer visitor), Black-winged Kite (Breeding resident), Black Kite (Resident), Osprey (Wintering), Oriental Honey Buzzard (Resident), Short-toed Snake Eagle (Resident), Eurasian Marsh Harrier (Wintering), Pallid Harrier (Wintering), Montagu’s Harrier (Wintering), Shikra (Breeding resident), White-eyed Buzzard (Breeding resident) Indian Spotted Eagle (Breeding resident), and Bonelli’s Eagle (Summer visitor). Courtesy: Madras Naturalists’ Society Bulletin).

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