Subramanyan was born in 1924 in Kuthuparamba in Kerala, India, and initially studied economics at Presidency College, Madras. During the freedom struggle he was actively involved and was known for his Gandhian ideology. He was even imprisoned and later banned from joining government colleges during the British Rule. The turning point of his life, as an artist, came when he visited Santiniketan to study in Kala Bhavan, the art faculty of Visva Bharati University, in the year 1944. Under the tutelage such pioneers of modern Indian art as Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij, Subramanyan studied there till 1948.
In 1951 he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts in M.S. University in Baroda. He went to study briefly in London at the Slade School of Art as a British Council scholar in 1956. While having already gone back to Baroda as a professor in painting and continuing there, he did a short stint in New York as a Rockefeller Fellow in 1966. In 1980, Subramanyan went back to Santiniketan to teach in his alma mater Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University, in his capacity as a professor in painting, which he continued till he retired in 1989. In the same year he was made a Professor Emeritus of Visva Bharati.
Subramanyan resided in Baroda, with his daughter Uma, towards the later days of his life and it was here that he died on 29 June 2016.
Retrospective show
There have been numerous retrospective shows of K.G. Subramanyan. K.G. Subramanyan, a Retrospective was the fourth and largest, curated by R. Siva Kumar at the National Gallery of Modern Art.
Career
1951–59 Lecturer in Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda
1955–56 British Council Research Scholar, UK
1959–61 Deputy Director (design), All India Handloom Board, Bombay
1961–65 Reader in Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda
1966–80 Professor of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda
1961–66 Design Consultant, All India
1966–67 Fellowship of The JDR III Fund, New York
1968–74 Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda
1975 Elected to the World Crafts Council
Delegate, Asian Assembly, World Craft Council, Sydney
1976 Member delegate, General Assembly, World Craft Council, Oaxtepec, Mexico
Visiting lecturer, Canadian universities: Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton
1977–78 Visiting Fellow, Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
1980–89 Professor of Painting, Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
1985 Guest, Chinese Artists Association, China
1987–88 Christensen Fellow, St. Catherine’s College, Oxford
1989 Professor Emeritus, Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
2004 Left Santiniketan and shifted back to Baroda in September.
Honours and awards
1957 Bombay Art Society Award
1959 Bombay Art Society Award
1961 Maharashtra State Award
1963 Medallion of Honourable Mention, Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil
1965 National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New 1968 Gold Medal, The First International Triennale, New Delhi
1981–84 Member Siksha-samiti and Karma-samiti of Visva Bharati, Santiniketan
1981–84 Member of the All India Handloom and Handicrafts Board
Has also been on the Board of studies of M.S. University, Baroda; Benaras Hindu University, Benaras; Punjab University, Chandigarh; College of Fine Arts, Trivadrum, Kerala; Faculty of Fine Arts, Bombay University; Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta etc. Member of the Editorial advisory Board of Leonardo
Books
1978 Moving Focus: Essays on Indian Art, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. (Reissued by Seagull Books, Calcutta in 2006)
1987 The Living Tradition, Seagull Books, Calcutta
1992 The Creative Circuit, Seagull Books, Calcutta
2006 Translation of Benodebehari Mukherjee’s Chitrakar, Seagull Books, Calcutta
2007 Poems, Seagull Books, Calcutta
2007 The Magic of Making: Essays on Art and Culture, Seagull Books, Calcutta
Illustrated books
1969 When God First Made the Animals He Made Them All Alike
1972 The Butterfly and the Cricket, A Summer Story, Robby
1974 Our Friends the Ogres, The King and the Little Man
1979 How Poppy Grew happy, Cat’s Night and Day, Frog Life is Fun Life
1985 Of Ogres Beasts and Men (When God First Made the Animals He Made Them All Alike, Our Friends the Ogres, and The King and the Little Man reissued as a boxed set)
1995 How Hanu Became Hanuman, Death in Eden, In the Zoo (All three reissued in 1996)
1998 The Tale of the Talking Face
Murals
1955 Jyoti Ltd., Baroda Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda
1963 ‘King of the Dark Chamber’, Rabindralaya, Lucknow
1965 India Pavilion, New York World Fair, New York
1969 ‘India of my Dreams Pavilion’, Gandhi Darshan, New Delhi
1976 R & D Building, Jyoti Pvt. Ltd., Baroda
1988 Sand cast Cement Mural, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan
1989 Reverse painting on Glass Mural (with school children), Santiniketan
1990 Black and White Mural, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan (first phase)
1993 Black and White Mural, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan (second phase)
2009 Black and White Mural (2nd version) Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan (Nov – Dec)