Suresh K. Nair (born 1971 in Adakkaputhur,

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, India) is an artist based in

Banaras Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic tra ...

. Nair obtained his national diploma in mural painting from the Institute of Mural Painting Guruvayur, Kerala under the guidance of Mammiyur Krishnan Kuty Nair. He was inspired by the works of Rabiindranath Tagore,

Nandalal Bose Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his "Indian style" of painting. He became the principa ...

, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinker Baij and continued his studies at the Department of Painting, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan. Nair has acquired a presence in the Indian and international art scene over the last decade with several shows organized by regional and international galleries and museums, and created many murals in India and abroad. His early works are based on Kerala murals, both in terms of technique and ideas. One of his modern paintings, ‘Cosmic Butterfly" is owned by Essl Museum,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria since 2010. His works were exhibited in the US, Spain, and Canada, and his awards include the Elizabath Green Shield Foundation Scholarship (1999) of Canada;

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

( 2006–07) for an Educational Exchange Program at

Tyler School of Art The Tyler School of Art and Architecture is based at Temple University, a large, urban, public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tyler currently enrolls about 1,350 undergraduate students and about 200 graduate students in a wid ...

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

, Philadelphia under Professor Nicholas Kripal; and the State Award of Kerala Lalithkala Akademi, Ministry of Culture, Government of Kerala. Since 2007, he teaches art at the Department of Painting, Faculty of Visual Arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. In the last decade, among his other projects, he is making experimental drawings inspired by music.

Early life and education

He was brought up in the culturally diverse Valluvanadu region in

Vellinezhi Vellinezhi is a small but culturally crucial village located in Palakkad district of Kerala in southern India. Geography The sylvan, rugged land is located on the banks of the Kunti, a slender rivulet that forms tributary to the broad, west-f ...

, Palakkad District in Kerala, South India, and observed the living traditions of performing arts like ''

Kathakali Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...

Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of S ...

, Mohiniyatam'', ''

Theyyam Theyyam (/ t̪eːjjəm/; romanised: ''teyyam'') are Hindu ritualistic dance forms practiced in northern Kerala and some parts of Karnataka. Theyyam is also known as Kaḷiyāṭṭaṁ or Tiṟa. Theyyam consists of traditions, rituals and c ...

'' and ''Thira''. He was fascinated by the temple murals of the region, book illustrations, contemporary paintings and photographs. He acquired his basic art education at the Silpa Chithra College of Art, Pattambi. From a young age, he was making sketches of moving figures, especially ''kathakali'' dancers. On one of these occasions. he met the French artist, Brigith Revelli, who commissioned him to draw postures and hand gestures of Katakhali dancers and exhibited his drawings and paintings at the French Cultural Center of Trivandrum, New Delhi and Paris.

Career

He studied Kerala mural painting for five years at Guruvayur Temple under the famous mural maestro, Mammiyoor Krishnan Kutty Nair, and continued his education at Visva Bharati University,

Santiniketan Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...

, West Bengal. Bengali artists like

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

Benode Behari Mukherjee Benode Behari Mukherjee (7 February 1904 – 11 November 1980) was an Indian artist from West Bengal state. Mukherjee was one of the pioneers of Indian modern art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. He was one of the earliest artists in mod ...

Ramkinkar Baij Ramkinkar Baij ( bn, রামকিঙ্কর বেইজ) (25 May 1906 – 2 August 1980) was an Indian sculptor and painter, one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. Early life and ...

and the filmmaker

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...

, had a great impact on his art practice, and he started learning contemporary performing arts as well. After completing his studies, he worked as a lecturer at Sri Sankaracharya Sanskrit University in Kalady, and he spent six months at

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

after he received a

in 2005. In 2007, he joined Banaras Hindu University as a faculty member. Since then he is an assistant professor of painting at the Department of Painting, Faculty of Visual Arts.

Wall of Peace

The Wall of Peace is a public art project initiated by Suresh K. Nair, and executed with the help of his students of Benares Hindu University in January 2019 in Cherpulassery, Kerala. The images created on the boundary wall of the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School are related to local history and tradition in order to promote peace and harmony. The project was completed with the support of Dr. Shehen P. V., Hamsa P. V., the SPACE Project (School Project Aiming at Excellence) and the local people of Cherpulassery. The 7,000-sq-ft wall is divided into 25 panels depicting local history, culture and tradition, and it is framed as a story-telling scroll starting with a Moon and finishing with a Sun made of mirrors. There are portraits of Mozhikunnath Brahmadattan Namboodiripad, an eminent figure of the 1921 Malabar rebellion; Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, a political leader fighting for independent India; Gandhi talking to the people of Cherpulassery; P. T. Bhaskara Panicker, a great scientist and educator of Kerala; Kannattil Ramanezhuthachan, the well-loved clerk of the school, who planted the banyan trees, and many others. Images of local tradition include a figure of traditional shadow puppetry, the Tholppava Koothu; temple dancers during Teyyam and Thira. File:The Saint by SKN.jpg, alt=The Saint, The Saint File:Torture of Brahmadattan Namboodirippad.jpg, alt=Wall of Peace, Wall of Peace File:Water by SKN.jpg, alt=Water, Water File:Art class in Varanasi.jpg, alt=Art Class for Children, Art Class for Children

Website

www.wallofpeace.in

References

External links

*https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/art/small-is-beautiful/article34952173.ece *https://vimeo.com/559689510 *http://kochimuzirisbiennale.org/students-biennale/ * https://crackbd.org/2019-curator%E2%80%8B-suresh-k-nair/ * https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2020/oct/16/4th-edition-of-students-biennale-from-feb-21-2210833.html * https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Kochi/students-biennale-to-be-held-online-in-feb-next-year/article32864803.ece * https://topnewswood.com/india/students-biennale-to-be-held-online-in-feb-next-year/ * https://m.timesofindia.com/city/kochi/students-biennale-to-open-as-virtual-expo-in-feb/articleshow/78724957.cms * https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/painting-exhibition-myriad-hues-of-life-during-lockdown/article32878575.ece * http://newindianexpress.com/magazine/City-as-a-canvas-for-mural-art/2013/08/25/article1746039.ece * http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/when-music-flows-golden/article4861660.ece * http://newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/Mystical-hues-of music/2013/06/28/article1656266.ece?service=print * https://www.temple.edu/temple_times/february07/Nair.html *http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/2019/jan/14/on-this-wall-history-retold-peace-spread-1924749.html *https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/700-foot-long-peace-wall-art-kerala-tells-local-history-and-more-98181 {{DEFAULTSORT:Nair, Suresh K. 1971 births Living people People from Palakkad district Banaras Hindu University faculty Visva-Bharati University alumni Muralists Painters from Kerala Fulbright alumni __FORCETOC__