ARTIST NAMBOOTHIRI

Artist Namboodiri, also known as K. M. Vasudevan Namboothiri (born 1925), is a well-known Indian painter and sculptor. He was the recipient of the Raja Ravi Varma Award in 2003.

Photo: Manoj Kumar K K

He is famous for his own style of line sketches Namboodiri is a Kerala-based artist who was born in Karuvattu Mana in Ponnani. He was influenced by the sculptures at the Shukapuram temple near his home when he was a child. “After witnessing these, I was compelled to draw and mould sculptures,” Namboodiri explains. Later, he was a student of K. C. S. Paniker, a well-known artist. He was also influenced by well-known painters such as Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury and S. Dhanapal. He studied painting in the Madras School of Fine Arts

Namboodiri, a Kerala-based artist, has painted a number of well-known figures for literary publications. In Mathrubhumi, his cartoon series "Naniyammayum Lokavum" was immensely famous. Mathrubhumi, a renowned Malayalam publication, was where he worked. He has also done pictures for a number of well-known Malayalam authors, including Thakazhy Shivasankara Pillai, Kesavadev, and M. T. Vasudevan Nair (for whom he illustrated a book) the novel, Randamoozham), Uroob, S. K. Pottekkatt, Edasseri Govindan Nair, and V.K.N.

He is a proponent of "finger painting" and works with copper sheet relief, having produced an exhibition of metal reliefs on copper plates illustrating the Ramayana and the struggle for independence.

For more than one time, he has served as the chairman of the Kerala Lalitakala Academy. During one of these stints, he took on the challenge of erecting a permanent structure for the Thrissur centre, which had previously operated out of rented space. He was also a driving force behind the transformation of Kochi's Durbar Hall into an art gallery.