Velu Viswanadhan (b.1940)

Born at Kadavoor in Kollam district as the third son of Palliyavila K Velu Achary and O Nani Ammal, Velu Viswanadhan was expelled from the Sree Narayana College of Art, Quilon for political activity in 1959. He joined the Madras School of Arts in 1960 and studied under the well-known painter KCS Paniker. In 1966, he helped found the Cholamandal Artists' Village.

The painter from Kerala looks at his work as an individual journey and an exploration. Though his early work is figurative, he evolved to experiment with abstract and geometric forms. In the late 1960s, Viswanadhan, inspired by geometrical ritualistic-magical diagrams of his native Kerala, explored the visual language inherent in them. The theme returns in his work time and again, with gradual evolution of form and color. Not only an artist, Viswanadhan turned filmmaker with his series on the elements: Sand, Water, Fire and Air. Now he has embarked on perhaps the most elusive of them all --- ether.

In his Paris years, he innovated with styles, sometimes mixing watercolors and oils, as a result of which the transparency of one medium blends into the opacity of the other. In his work done in the 1970s, he even used gold and silver colors.

Using strong hand made paper, these works combine a technique generally utilized in making in handcrafts with a sophisticated sense of organization. His later works used Indian ink to create large, horizontal formats and smaller square drawings.

He lives and works in Paris now.