Select artworks of A. Ramachandran will forever grace the university where he taught for 27 years in the last century, as Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) received their prints and put them on public display at the campus in the capital city.
The formal acceptance of 22 chosen paintings in print was followed by an 11-day homage that concluded on Thursday evening, reinforcing the painter-sculptor’s genius and recalling his deep scholastic association with the varsity. Titled ‘Guru-Shishya Parampara’, the exhibition of the late artist’s prints was curated by writer-scholar Uma Nair. The March 4-14 show, which was organized by JMI’s Faculty of Arts, also featured works by Ramachandran’s students during his 1965-87 tenure at the varsity.
Dr. Bindulika Sharma, who initiated the show as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at JMI, said the set of invaluable images was a great honor for the varsity. “These beautiful prints will keep his memory alive for us teachers and students,’ she noted, pointing out that some of the students of Ramachandran (1935-2024) are top contemporary artists.
Uma Nair, who has closely followed Ramachandran’s work for more than three decades, said the artist’s love for tradition enabled him to emerge as an exemplary professor and a successful artist. “You can call him a modern Leonardo da Vinci. Through countless hours of observation and sketching, Ramachandran went on to realize that nature held the keys to the beauty of what he translated onto canvas,” she said.
For the Kerala-born artist who did his higher studies at Santiniketan in West Bengal and moved to Delhi in the mid-1960s, the muses eventually turned out to be the people of Rajasthan, Uma Nair pointed out. “The landscape of the desert state and it’s the attire of its people became the subjects of his creativity with the brush.”
The artist’s scholastic eminence found reiteration at the opening ceremony of the exhibition at the university’s MF Hussain Art Gallery when the venue saw several Ramachandran’s students remembering him with reverence and affection. For instance, Prof Rajesh Kumar Sharma, who heads the Department of Sculpture at Chandigarh College of Arts. At JMI, Ramachandran took voluntary retirement in 1987 amid an increasingly busy profile as a painter-sculptor. Among his monumental works are Yayati (1986) and the Lotus Ponds series subsequently.
At the Okhla campus, ‘Guru-Shishya Parampara’ was a highlight of JMI’s just-concluded Kalam Festival that also featured innovative performances, creative stalls, art products and food courts.
The Ramachandran works for JMI were printed at Archana Offset in Delhi and given by the city-based Vadehra Art Gallery which enjoyed three decades of intense association with the artist known for his big-sized paintings. Also an art historian and muralist, Ramachandran was a master of pen-and-ink, watercolor and oils — all of them celebrated for their sophistication and nuances. He died on February 10, 2024, aged 89.
Uma Nair
Art Historian and Curator
