Demonstrators by Krishna Reddy, 1968
Multicolour viscosity, Print on paper
Krishna Reddy (1925–2018) was part of many vital and dynamic learning centres in his life. Early on he attended Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Rishi Valley School and then went to study art at Santiniketan with Ramkinkar Baij. There, he also focussed on botany and biology, which would nourish his practice. Reddy left India to study sculpture at London’s Slade School of Fine Art with Henry Moore.
In the 1950s, Reddy moved to Paris to work with the historic Atelier 17 and was part of a group of artists who invented simultaneous multicolour viscosity printing—a technical term for a new possibility in intaglio print-making that allowed printing in multiple colours at the same time rather than in different layers. Reddy’s work in this medium drew from his training in sculpture as it required making intricate reliefs so that inks of varying viscosities could settle in different areas of the metal plate used for the print.
While Reddy often made abstract images inspired by nature in both its grand and microscopic forms, he never turned away from events of the world around him. In 1942, he painted hundreds of figurative protest posters for the Quit India Movement. One of his most iconic prints, Demonstrators, was made in response to the 1968 protests in France.
The symmetrical lines evoke bodies standing guard much like the students and workers who occupied universities and factories once did. Demonstrators transcends that moment, however, and turns into an enduring image of rebellion. Reddy moved to New York in 1976 and worked there until the age of 93.
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Krishna Reddy (1925–2018) was part of many vital and dynamic learning centres in his life. Early on he attended Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Rishi Valley School and then went to study art at Santiniketan with Ramkinkar Baij. There, he also focussed on botany and biology, which would nourish his practice. Reddy left India to study sculpture at London’s Slade School of Fine Art with Henry Moore.
In the 1950s, Reddy moved to Paris to work with the historic Atelier 17 and was part of a group of artists who invented simultaneous multicolour viscosity printing—a technical term for a new possibility in intaglio print-making that allowed printing in multiple colours at the same time rather than in different layers. Reddy’s work in this medium drew from his training in sculpture as it required making intricate reliefs so that inks of varying viscosities could settle in different areas of the metal plate used for the print.
While Reddy often made abstract images inspired by nature in both its grand and microscopic forms, he never turned away from events of the world around him. In 1942, he painted hundreds of figurative protest posters for the Quit India Movement. One of his most iconic prints, Demonstrators, was made in response to the 1968 protests in France.
The symmetrical lines evoke bodies standing guard much like the students and workers who occupied universities and factories once did. Demonstrators transcends that moment, however, and turns into an enduring image of rebellion. Reddy moved to New York in 1976 and worked there until the age of 93.