C. K. Ramakrishnan Nair (1917 – 16 September 1994), popularly known as C.K. Ra, was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, writer and teacher of

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creativity, creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function ...

. An advocate of creative freedom, he was credited with bringing modernism into Kerala painting and heralded the "Ra phase" it. He was the superintendent of the Trivandrum School of Arts and later became the chairman of

Kerala Lalita Kala Akademi Kerala Lalithakala Akademi () is an autonomous cultural organization established in Kerala, India, in 1962. Its primary purpose is to promote and propagate fine arts such as painting, sculpture, and visual arts in the state. The Akademi funct ...

Biography

C. K. Ra was born in

Thiruvalla Thiruvalla, () also spelled Tiruvalla, is a Municipalities of Kerala, municipality in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, India. The town is spread over an area of and has a population of 52,883 people, down from 56,837 in 2001. It is also the H ...

to K. Ramavarma Koithampuran of Paliakara Kottaram and Sankaravelil Kunjukuttiyamma. He had his initial training at Ravi Varma School of Painting in

Mavelikara Mavelikkara () is a municipality in the Onattukara Region of Alappuzha district of Kerala, India. It is located south of the district headquarters in Alappuzha and about north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. As per the 2011 ...

under Rama Varma, the younger son of

Raja Ravi Varma Raja Ravi Varma () (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. Especially, he was notable f ...

. After completion of his studies, he went to Bombay to work with the British Information Department. During his time in Bombay, he created a series of paintings about the torments of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, including ''Peace after War'', ''Prelude to Revenge'' and ''Massacre''. When the war was over, he left Bombay and took to teaching, first at a school in

Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...

and later at the Ravi Varma School of Painting, Mavelikara. He had a brief period of training in

Santiniketan Shantiniketan (IPA: Help:IPA/Bengali, �antiniketɔn 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 Devendra ...

and became a disciple of

Jamini Roy Jamini Roy (11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972) was an Indian painter. He was honoured by the Government of India the award of Padma Bhushan in 1954. He remains one of the most famous pupils of Abanindranath Tagore, another praised Indian art ...

and

Nandalal Bose Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Santiniketan: The Making of a Contextual Modernism, Contextual Modernism. A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his ...

. When he returned to Kerala to work at the College of Fine Arts Trivandrum, it was the beginning of the "Ra phase" in Kerala painting. Some of the memorable paintings of this period were ''Temple Fantasia'', ''Washing Hair'' and ''Delightful Pain'', works that aspire to transcend the practiced responses to colour, form and meaning. Among his contemporaries who were based in Trivandrum were his disciple Chirayinkil Sreekantan Nair, G. Rajendran, B.D. Dethan and N.Divakaran, all of whom were former students of the Trivandrum School of Arts and the self-taught painter and novelist

Malayattoor Ramakrishnan K. V. Ramakrishna Iyer, better known by his pen name, Malayattoor Ramakrishnan (27 May 1927 – 27 December 1997), was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature, cartoonist, lawyer, Magistrate, judicial magistrate, and Indian Administrative Servi ...

. C.K. Ra also wrote on modernism in painting.

References

1917 births 1994 deaths Malayali people Raja Ravi Varma College of Fine Arts alumni Artists from Thiruvananthapuram 20th-century Indian painters Painters from Kerala People from Thiruvalla {{Kerala-stub