The Karnataka Chitra Kala Parishat has chosen renowned national artist Padma Shree Kalal Laxma Goud of Telangana for the late MS Nanjundarao memorial national award, in the memory of the first Founder Secretary. The prestigious honour includes Rs one lakh cash and a citation.
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Annual sought-after event: It may be recalled here that the Karnataka Chitra Kala Parishat, the pioneer art institution of the state has been honouring five distinguished artists of repute every year on the eve of the annual and sought-after signature event Chitra Santhe, an exhibition cum sale of paintings and artefacts of around 1,300 artists across the state and country.
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An artist working in multiple media: Octogenarian Kalal Laxma Goud (born on 21st August 1940) is a versatile artist who simultaneously indulges in multiple media. He is a painter, printmaker and draftsman as well. The variety of media he has been working on etching, gouache, pastel, and glass painting. Interestingly, he is widely known for his initial drawings depicting eroticism from a rural perspective. They are also notable for the originality and quality of his etchings and aquatints.
Talent from the family of Toddy brewers: Kalal Laxma Goud was born in a Toddy brewer’s family to Venka Goud and Anthamma at Nizampur of Medak district in the erstwhile Hyderabad state. He had a large family with four brothers and two sisters while he spent most of his childhood in rustic environs observing rural tradition and crafts.
Poor performance lands up with art! As a young boy, he evinced enthusiasm in observing Andhra leather puppetry and the creation of terracotta ornamentation. He was encouraged for schooling and further studies. However, poor performance at matriculation disabled him to join either the humanities or science. In this way, he landed up with art at the Government College of Art and Architecture in Hyderabad where he got a five years Diploma.
Exposure to contemporary art: He left for Baroda for higher studies in 1963. Therein he got exposure to contemporary art as he learnt traditional fresco techniques. He studied Mural Painting under K.G.Subramanyan at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayyajirao University of Baroda till 1965. During his studies there Kalal Laxma Goud found out his love towards printmaking and his craving towards that art form transformed into a driving force at the university to build a strong and credible voice for fine art print.
From the village and back to the village: Unlike the tendency of educated youths to leave the native village once and for all Kalal Laxma Goud returned to his native Nizampur village after his graduation in Baroda. Thanks to his educated outlook as an urban sophisticate, his artistic zeal in him vent to unselfconscious attitudes towards sexuality that also led to a typical relaxed atmosphere of the rural lifestyle. This viewpoint of relaxed sexuality was paradoxical compared to the rigid sexual mores of the urban middle class he happen to encounter in the cities.
Known for eroticism in early works: In fact, Kalal Laxma Goud is well known for his depiction of eroticism in his works in initial drawings and this aspect has been consistent and candid ever since the inception of his career in the 1970s’. It is also said that this obsession with the erotic can be traced to his childhood in the village where his response to the erotic experience is most sensitive and vivid.
The explicit portrayal of sexual play: Back home in the village Kalal Laxma Goud realized the absence of taboos and inhibitions about sex so predominant in the urban society he was then currently living. He recalled his childhood days in the village with experiences of first stirrings of sex, remembering people living close together with animals, and women abusing each other with plain sexual gestures and words during altercations. His range of work includes an explicit portrayal of sexual play without any symbolic undertones; entwined human, animal and nature forms in figuratively cohabiting postures.
What’s the problem? Kalal Laxma Goud’s drawings raised several questions in a section of society initially. But he is very candid in defending his style of portraying society and more so the rural society the way it is and remains. On his masterful small paintings of village life in a palette of monochrome greys, pen and ink, and village nostalgia, the surreal, and the erotic he hits back-“We come from a culture which spoke openly about the man-woman relationship, about fertility. When it recurs in a contemporary context, why should anyone pull a face”.
Returns to traditional roots: Although, Kalal Laxma Goud in the 1970s’ began to explore acquaint in his etchings and also more intensely sexual themes but over a period of time and by the 1980s’ it looks like the artist seemed to return to more traditional roots. He also started exploring various craft forms such as terracotta and reverse glass painting in a more subdued and decorative style. He has also served as the Head of Sarojini Naidu School of Performing Art, Fine Art and Communication, University of Hyderabad.
Exhibitions all over the world: Kalal Laxma Goud has held national, international and solo exhibitions at Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai, New Delhi, London, Munich, Hamburg, Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil, Amsterdam, USA, Switzerland etc. Likewise his art collections can be seen in several countries.
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