Renowned artist A Ramachandran passes away after prolonged illness
Renowned artist Achutan Ramachandran Nair, popularly known as A Ramachandran, died after prolonged illness on Saturday. He was 89.
“He was sick for quite some time now and passed away at 9 this morning from medical complications,” his son Rahul shared.
Born in 1935 in Attingal, Kerala, Ramachandran was known for his monumental canvases, colourful oil paintings and watercolours. He joined Kala Bhavan at Viswa Bharati University in Santiniketan, West Bengal and completed his education in art. He joined Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi as a lecturer in art education in 1965. He also wrote and illustrated numerous picture books for which he received the Noma Concours Awards in 1978 and 1980. He took voluntary retirement from teaching in 1992 to devote his time to his creative pursuits.
In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the Lalit Kala Akademi and received the Padma Bhushan for outstanding service in the field of art in 2005. He was also conferred with an honorary doctorate by Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala in 2013. He is famous for his extensive research on Kerala temple murals.
Although held a Master’s degree in Malayalam literature, his interest in art remained a constant. He designed the granite bas-relief sculpture at the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai.
Ramachandran lived and worked in New Delhi. He was married to artist Tan Yuan Chameli.
