Artist Manickam Senathipathi, among the many final masters of the Madras Artwork Motion, passes away

Senior artist M. Senathipathi at Cholamandal artwork village on Friday.
| Photograph Credit score: Akhila Easwaran

The numerous worlds of Manickam Senathipathi’s creative journey got here to a profoundly shifting trajectory within the final canvas he painted on the Artists Village of Cholamandal on Saturday, Could 10, 2025.

He known as it ‘Christ’, symbolising maybe the latest elevation of a brand new Pope to the best pastoral seat of the Catholic Church. The imagery is bathed within the celestial blue of crosses rising out of the patterned earth in greens, in addition to the browns of a canopied umbrella that extends over the central varieties.

Senathipathi’s final work painted on Saturday the Could 10. 2025

As in a lot of Senathipathi’s work, the symbolic use of motifs, whether or not of the staring eyes embedded within the central column of an historical prophet with a flowing beard, the fallen physique of a hero on the bottom; and the emblematic hand-held out in a gesture of peace, or warning, might be interpreted in some ways.

Manickam Senathipathi had all the time been the calm centre of the usually turbulent however all the time creatively exuberant and multi-talented neighborhood of artists pioneered by the good KCS Paniker on the Cholamandal Artists’ Village. He earned the respect of each the legendary pioneers of the primary era of artists and those that now carry the flaming paintbrush, if not the blowtorch of metallic reliefs, or the chisel of stone craft, into the longer term. Because the subtext to Cholamandal signifies, it’s each an enviornment for the humanities and crafts. In Senathipathi’s case, his earlier and most well-known items had been of the crushed metallic pictures that mixed each artwork and craft with equal felicity. 

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 20 Could 2023: For Metro Plus: Senior artists M. Senathipathi, P. Gopinath, C.Douglas, P.S Nandhan and Selvaraj at Cholamandal artwork village on Friday. Photograph: Akhila Easwaran/ The Hindu
| Photograph Credit score:
Akhila Easwaran

Probably the most iconic of those usually featured a determine of Krishna taking part in his flute on a silvered background of crushed metallic. Or extra flagrantly a young interlude of lovelorn maidens entranced by Krishna’s melodic notes clustering round him just like the vines of a cannonball flower in mid-summer. Senatipathi’s work mixed an austere strategy with very refined erotic results.

To cite from his artist’s assertion, Senathipathi writes: In my work, I’ve by no means ceased to be a mythologist, however the current has held in my ideas, a sure concern for the human situation. To voice this temper, I’ve depicted in my metallic reliefs, as additionally my work, ideas which relate to insecurity in life. In depicting these expressions, I additionally cope with magnificence and the human behaviour equivalent to affection that makes life extra significant at this time.”

As defined by his son Saravanan, Senathipathi was connected to his ancestral village in Cheyur, Madurantakam. The sounds and drumbeat of Tamil Nadu’s cultural variety resonate virtually effortlessly in his work. One sees it within the richly patterned surfaces of the individuals languidly reclining in a few of his compositions, or the colourful colors of his canvases that grew to become part of his repertoire in later years.

Early days – Cholamandal
| Photograph Credit score:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

After his preliminary training on the Authorities School of Arts and Crafts, Chennai, the place he obtained a diploma in Drawing and Portray in 1965, Senathipathi joined the neighborhood of artists at Cholamandal Artists’ village as a life member. Throughout these early years, he travelled broadly to nations equivalent to Britain, France, Holland, Belgium and West Germany. He was later invited to China and elements of South East Asia and includingAbu Dhabi in West Asia. Amongst the various awards and recognition, Senathipathi obtained the 2008 Kalaichemmal award, Authorities of Tamilnadu, 1984-86 Senior Fellowship, Division of Tradition, Authorities of India, and 1981 Tamil Nadu Lalit Kala Akademi, Madras.

Saravanan an artist of reputation himself provides: “He was a legend who walked with legends and made his personal path. It’s now our flip to make it possible for we supply this legacy in our lifetime.” Senathipathi leaves behind his spouse Gowri, his daughter Hemalatha, and son Saravanan.