Mapping with figures

“With the Musui-Maiya sculptures Radhakrishnan frees himself from the visible trappings of modernism he had adopted in his earlier work.

He does not privilege the fragment anymore, nor does he employ the surface chopping analytical veneer of post-cubist sculpture, he also gives up the idea of each sculpture being an independent art object and embraces seriality and narration. With the highly readable figuration they
might even look a little regressive. But this is deceptive. Though the visible trappings of modernism have been shed, his work still carries a vein of modernism deep within it. These anatomically complete figures, as we have already noticed, were born of a fragment—the lopped off head of Musui. And the body that is so readable is at the same time schematic, and too light and nimble to be real. The arms and legs are not only lean but also almost of the same girth. The figures (especially from the Freehold and Terrafly series) are so plastic, and their movements are so fluid, that they deny the reality of bones; and the sensuous flesh-
invoking modelling is stretched thin like skin over the meagre volume of the figures...”
R Siva Kumar’s informative essay on the sculptural journey of KS Radhakrishnan is an art historical gem useful for the serious lovers of art. Mapping with Figures is a highly focussed study on the artist’s works from the last fifteen years which offers an insightful account on the significance of KS Radhakrishnan in contemporary Indian art. It restores a sense of history, complemented with a fascinating background check on the formations of Radhakrishnan as an artist.