 |
Srilamanthula Chandramohan | |
|---|---|
| Born | Srilamanthula Chandramohan 1981 Madanapally, Andhra Pradesh, India. |
| Education | BFA, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University MFA, Maharaja Sayajirao University |
| Awards | 49th Lalit Kala Akademi National Exhibition award (2006) First prize, Bhopal Bienniale (2009) |
Srilamanthula Chandramohan (born 1981) is an artist who was born in Madanapally, a village in Andhra Pradesh in southern India.
In 2004 he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) in Hyderabad and pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree in Graphics at the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU) in Baroda, Gujarat. He has received numerous important national and international awards for his work, including the 49th Lalit Kala Akademi National Exhibition award in 2006 for Remorse I and more recently first prize in the 2009 Bhopal Bienniale for Remorse VI.
Srilamanthula Chandramohan was at the center of a controversy regarding artwork that he exhibited at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda. At the time of the dispute he was a final year post-graduate student. Protests against artworks by Chandramohan began on 9 May 2007.
The paintings were part of an annual exam, however by tradition, the public was invited to view the paintings. Times of India (7 May 2007) and Gujarati daily Sandesh (9 May 2007) mentioned that the works of art created by the students of the faculty as a part of their Annual Examination were open for public display on 9 May 2007. [1] Among the earliest to protest was the district superintendent of the Methodist Church in Baroda, Reverend Emmanuel Kant [2] He said, [3]
A group of irate Hindus, led by Niraj Jain, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activist, accompanied by local police, [4] also came into the exhibition venue. Jain, who had complained to the police about the allegedly blasphemous nature of the paintings, demanded the paintings be removed. The two objectionable painting were described by University Vice-Chancellor Manoj Soni as: [5]
He has stated that "My aim is to show the purity, truth and reality in human beings using the images of god and goddesses." [6] There was no attack on Chandramohan, nor were his paintings destroyed. [7] There was no vandalism, although it was widely claimed. [8] Chandramohan was arrested and later released on 14 May. [9]
Throughout the controversy the Indian art community rallied to Chandramohan's cause, claiming that the closing of the exhibition and his arrest was a direct assault of the rights of freedom of expression. Students and artists held protests nationwide. [10] A group of students and artists at MSU Baroda sought to stage a protest demonstration at the Faculty of Fine Arts by organising an exhibition of photographs taken from the classical and explicitly erotic sculptures that adorn the Khajuraho temples in Madhya Pradesh. When news of this protest exhibition was released, the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Shivaji Panikkar, was asked to prohibit it. Dean Panikkar refused, and was subsequently suspended indefinitely from the University. [11]
The incident was widely reported in the national media as an attack by the Sangh Parivar, [12] in most cases with no mention of the Christian objection to the Jesus painting. [13] [14] [15]
On a note of meeting VC of university to ask for the reason behind the extreme delay of his results, Chandra Mohan entered university's head office and with kerosene set it on fire. Police further arrested him on criminal offence and the case is subject to law. [16]
Kalakshetra Foundation, formerly simply Kalakshetra, is an arts and cultural academy dedicated to the preservation of traditional values in Indian art and crafts, especially in the field of Bharatanatyam dance and Gandharvaveda music. Based in Chennai, India, the academy was founded in January 1936 by Rukmini Devi Arundale and her husband George Arundale. Under Arundale's guidance, the institution achieved national and international recognition for its unique style and perfectionism. In 1962, Kalakshetra moved to a new campus in Besant Nagar, Chennai, occupying 40 hectares of land.
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, formerly Baroda College, is a public university in the city of Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Originally established as a college in 1881, it became a university in 1949 after India's independence. It was later renamed after its benefactor Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the former ruler of Baroda State.
Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh is a painter, poet and art critic from Gujarat, India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1983 and Padmabhushan in 2014 for his contribution in field of art.
Dhruva Mistry is an Indian sculptor.
Narayan Shridhar Bendre was a 20th-century Indian artist and one of the founder members of Baroda Group Narayan Shridhar Bendre was born in Indore. He made a name for himself as a landscape artist. In 1992 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan.
The Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda is one of the major art colleges in India. It has a reputation for promoting a creative and individualist approach among its students, and has historically adhered to secularist, humanist, and modernist ideals.
Shishir Bhattacharjee is a Bangladeshi artist. His paintings, critical of the political establishment but always in a satirical fashion, were first seen in the 1980s. His political cartoons appear regularly in daily newspapers in Bangladesh. During the past couple of years, he has produced paintings that appropriate images from Bengali film posters, altered to serve his social and political messages.
Kalpathi Ganpathi "K.G." Subramanyan was an Indian artist. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2012.
Kalal Laxma Goud is an Indian painter, printmaker and draughtsman. He works in variety of mediums including etching, gouache, pastel, sculpture, and glass painting. He is best known for his early drawings that depict eroticism in a rural context, and also for the originality and quality of his etchings and aquatints.
Jyotindra Manshankar Bhatt, better known as Jyoti Bhatt, is an Indian artist best known for his modernist work in painting and printmaking and also his photographic documentation of rural Indian culture. He studied painting under N. S. Bendre and K.G. Subramanyan at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University (M.S.U.), Baroda. Later he studied fresco and mural painting at Banasthali Vidyapith in Rajasthan, and in the early 1960s went on to study at the Academia di Belle Arti in Naples, Italy, as well the Pratt Institute in New York. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019 and elected as a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi in 2022.
Haku Vajubhai Shah was an Indian painter, Gandhian, cultural anthropologist and author on folk and tribal art and culture. His art belonged to the Baroda Group and his works are considered in the line of artists who brought themes of folk or tribal art to Indian art.
Kavitha Balakrishnan is an art critic, poet, contemporary art researcher, painter and art curator. She started her teaching career as a lecturer of Art History at College of Fine Arts Trivandrum from 1998 to 1999. She later lectured at the R.L.V. College of Music and Fine Arts in Thrippunithura and as a visiting faculty at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Mumbai. Balakrishnan is currently a lecturer in Art history and Aesthetics at the Govt. College of Fine Arts in Thrissur, Kerala State, India.
Latika Katt is an Indian sculptor who specializes in stone carving, metal casting and bronze sculpting. She is notable for winning the Beijing Art Biennale Award for her bronze work titled "Makar Sankranti at Dashawmeth Ghat, Varanasi.
Anita Dube is an Indian contemporary artist whose work has been widely exhibited in India.
Chintan Upadhyay is an Indian artist. He was awarded the Charles Wallace Foundation Award for Residency in Bristol, UK in 2012. He began as a painter, but now creates sculptures and installations, the surfaces of which he paints.
Karuna Sukka is an Indian printmaker and painter from Telangana State who works with large-scale wood-cuts to make prints.
Jayant Parikh is an Indian artist, printmaker, and muralist. He is a student of N. S. Bendre, K. G. Subramanyan and Sankho Chaudhuri. He lives and works in Vadodara, India.
The Baroda Group refers to the artists involved with the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, now known as Vadodara in Gujarat state of India. An experimental art school that drew artists of a variety of backgrounds, the Baroda Group offered an alternative to the nationalism associated with Santiniketan and the Bengal School.
Rekha Rodwittiya is a contemporary Indian artist associated with the Baroda School. She is known for her allegorical and metaphoric narrative paintings depicted through the style of surrealism and magical realism. She conducts an art studio in Vadodara called The Collective Studio, jointly with her husband and artist Surendran Nair.