Artists Directory >Nandhan P S
Nandan is a versatile artist. He is both a painter and a sculptor. His passion for sculpture particularly is intense. He prefers to work with metal, stone and terracotta; and in each of them he excels with exceptional competency. Susan Gill's comment; "Nandhan is a master in terracotta art." Susan is a well known art critic from the United States of America, who acquired a beautiful terracotta mask from Nandhan not so long ago.
Nandhan develops his knowledge not so much through reading as through sight. The experiences of the external world, which he absorbs are usefully assimilated into his expressions of art. His attitude for dedicated work with utmost quietness may perhaps help his inner satisfaction: a sense of contentment and growth; for he has never strived merely for self-glorification. This mystifies one for, in terms of materialistic gains and recognition, he, however, remains unrewarded though deserving.
His exhibitions arouse rapid appreciational response among critics, though valued highly by artists. To understand and appreciate his art, infact any art, it is essential for one to empty the mind of all preconceived notions of what one has heard or read about it. This imprisons the vision. When the mind is open, it is capable to see dispassionately, even an ancient work of art, though remote in time from us, are certainly not remote, in thought. They disclose the working of the primal impulses of the human soul. Tradition is something which is forever being recreated by the free activity of its followers. If a tradition does not grow, it only means that its followers have become spiritually and creatively dead.
Nandhan instills faith in his creativity. He believes that art should be richly diversified as ever, its character determined more by the individualities of the various artists than by movements of International scope, which lose their force in course of time.
Pullarambakkam Sundarraj Nandhan, now 48, lanky and slender with flowing hair, touching his slim shoulders, looks more like a yogi than a sculptor.The thin rimmed glasses, below the nose bridge, adds queer charm to his scraggy personality. He moves about swiftly on the spacious Cholomandal sandy campus with alertness, observing nature keenly to keep the process of his creativity in constant involvement. Synthesis, as all the arts have always been, is that truth which could be achieved not through forms and concepts alone, but more by realisation of the"inner energy" that resides in the deeper recesses of artist's core. Its through this "inner energy" Nandhan tries to know the PARIPRASHNA, the questioning of life and the tradition it creates constantly in the process of expansion.
Bio-Data:
Born: 1940 Maduratakam, Tamil Nadu (Madras)
Academic Background:
1968 - Diploma in Painting and Advance course with distinction, Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras.
1965 - Joined as a member of the Cholamandal Artists' Village and also a life member.
1972 - Experimented and started making sculptures in clay, metal sheets, bronze, brick, wood and granite (Followed method of Folk sculpture of placing smaller sections one top of other and achieving the height).
Exhibitions:
1989 - A show 'Sculpture on Nehru Theme' at Rashtriya Lalit Kala Kendra, Calcutta.
1990 - International Exhibition of Asian European Art Binnale, ANKARA, TURKI.
1983 - "The Madras Metaphor" Exhibition of 7 sculptors in Bombay.
Awards:
1979 - Tamil Nadu State Lalit Kala Akademi Award
1991 - Tamil Nadu State Lalit Kala Akademi Award
1992 - National Award by Central Lalit Kala Akademi - New Delhi.
Important Collections:
Air India Bombay
Museum of Bangalore
Victoria Hotel, London, UK
United States Committee for the United Nationals University, New York.
The Asia and Pacific Museum, Poland.
Ecco Shoe Company, Canada, Australia, Europe and Denmark.
Commissions Executed:
1998 - The Madras Metaphor Exhibition and a Second book of Contemporary Indian Sculpture: An Algebra of Figuration released by Governor of Tamil Nadu at British Council - Chennai.
1997 - An Exhibition by Quayside Gallery, at Gallery Forty Seven, London.
1998 - An Exhibition for auction by Spastics Society of India, Bombay.
Address: Cholamandal Artist's Village, Enchambakkam, Chennai - 600 041, India.
