“The tribal environs of Rajasthan, still unspoiled by urban intrusions, have also triggered in his memory the unsullied beauty of nature in his Kerala childhood. Like some hidden, glowing jewel in a pristine setting, it has invited the painter to leave his stamp. He has captured it in its many moods with its different colors during different times of the year…Like the Kathakali dancers of his home state repeating the same epics night after night mining the same emotions but performing with a slight difference each time, Ramachandran has also gone over the same terrain. And each time, he has given a subtly different nuance to the drama of colors, patterns, props, settings. In so doing, he has made this part of this world his own domain” – Excerpt from ‘Imagined Territory, Reclaiming a Lost Paradise’ by Ella Datta, 2001

Ella Datta is a well-known art critic who has contributed articles, columns, and commentaries on Indian contemporary art to major Indian newspapers including the Times of India, Telegraph, Hindustan Times, Economic Times, Business Standard, Illustrated Weekly of India and the Bengali publication Ananda Bazaar Patrika. She is the author of two studies on Ramachandran (‘Face to Face’, Guild Art USA Publication, New York, 2007, and ‘Art of A Ramachandran’, Roli Books, New Delhi, 2000).

‘In the tribal villages [outside Udaipur, Rajasthan], I found an ideal world that satisfied all my aesthetic needs…the little Bhil villages gave the prodigal son who had left Kerala a second homecoming. These marvelous, graceful and simple tribals accepted me as one of their own and I could observe and study them from close quarters. I put all my creative energies into understanding their life and environment. In that process, I found an island away from the turmoil of urban life where I took shelter like a child playing under the cot. They were for me, a means to discover a world of my own, with a separate reality. No wonder those who were familiar with the social and political content of my earlier works found it hard to accept my new paintings with strange-looking female figures with impossible waistlines against strange-looking landscape of trees, plants, flowers, birds, animals and insects’ – A Ramachandran (Extract taken from ‘An Enquiry into the Revivalist Tendencies into my Art and Hairstyle’)

Do you want to see this painting?

This painting is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art this summer (June 27-September 1, 2008) as a part of the 'Rhythms of India' traveling exhibition.

The exhibition celebrates the art of Bengal school master Nandalal Bose and his influence on Indian contemporary art. It was first shown at the San Diego Museum of Art (February 23-May 18, 2008).

The San Diego Museum of Art has produced an extensive catalog for this exhibition which includes essays on Nandalal Bose by a group of established art historians, historians and Indian artists, including Ramachandran.

Philadelphia Museum of Art
26th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19130
http://www.philamuseum.org/

San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado
Balboa Park
San Diego, California, USA
http://www.sdmart.org/