K. M. Adimoolam ( ta, கே. எம். ஆதிமூலம்) (26 July 1938 – 15 January 2008) was an Indian abstract artist. He was born in 1938 in Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu. In 1959, he moved to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

where under the influence of the sculptor Dhanapal, he enrolled in the School of Arts and Crafts. After completing his Diploma in Advanced Painting in 1966, Adimoolam started a series of black and white portraits of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. Sketching from photographs of the great man, he finished nearly a hundred drawings that moved over 60 years of the Mahatma’s life. He was associated with Modern Tamil Writer's Group since the mid-Sixties and did a number of illustrations, book covers, and layouts. A recipient of prestigious awards from Lalit Kala Akademi (Chennai), Chitrakala Parishat (Bangalore), Bombay Art Society, Hyderabad Art Society, Academy of Fine Arts (Kolkata), besides the National Award from Lalit Kala Akademi (New Delhi), Adimoolam also served as a jury member for the National Exhibition of Art, New Delhi, and Bombay Art Society's Annual All India Art Exhibition. He was the Commissioner for the Indian section in the Third Ankara Biennial at Turkey in 1990. The book, Between The Lines, carries his drawings done between 1962 and 1996. He has also been involved in the

Madras Art Movement Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, which emerged in the early 1960s under the leadership of

K.C.S. Paniker Kovalezhi Cheeramputhoor Sankara Paniker (31 May 1911 – 16 January 1977) was an Indian metaphysical and abstract painter from Malabar District. He interpreted the country's age-old metaphysical and spiritual knowledge in the 1960s, when Indian ...

. Adimoolam died on 15 January 2008 in Chennai. Adimoolam once said:

"Child or middle-aged man, my heart and mind are filled with nature, at every moment. It is a wonderful experience; this love and awe that provoke my ever creative and anxious mind to penetrate the reality that lies beyond our vista. Thus, my canvases mirror my mind's journey through Nature - not as realistic landscapes or seascapes but planes of colors creating an esoteric aura on a transcendental level. For two decades, my concept has been evolving unilaterally with mere technical innovation and a different exploitation of hues.”

External links

"K. M. Adimoolam Profile,Interview and Artworks"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adimoolam, K.M. 1938 births 2008 deaths 20th-century Indian painters Artists from Tiruchirappalli