The modernist Indian artist Krishna Reddy has died aged 93. Primarily working in printmaking and sculpture, and known for his experimental works, Reddy also taught at different institutions including the Montessori Teachers’ Training Centre in Madras, Maryland Institute College of Art, Pratt Institute, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Texas and many more. After studying Fine Arts at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan (1942-47), Reddy went on to teach at the College of Fine Arts, Kalakshetra, Madras as the Head of the Arts Department until 1949. He then enrolled for a sculpture course at London’s Slade School of Art where he studied under the guidance of Henry Moore. In 1950 Reddy moved to Paris and joined the studio of English painter Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17, which he later directed. Reddy associated himself with the French international avant-garde movement and participated in the Paris student protests in 1968. From 1977, Krishna Reddy was a professor and artist-in-residence at New York University’s Graphics and Printmaking in the Art Department.
Recent exhibitions include Workshop & Legacy: Stanley William Hayter, Krishna Reddy & Zarina Hashmi, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (2016-17) and The Embodied Image, Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, New Delhi (2011). Reddy’s work is held in the permanent collections of several private and public collections including Tate Britain, London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Kiran Nadar Museum, New Delhi, Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum, Ahmedabad, M+ Museum, Hong Kong. In 1972, Reddy was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian government. Reddy’s work is currently on view in Bauhaus Imagista: Corresponding with Japan at The National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto.
24 August 2018
