Noted artist from Kerala K Damodaran passed away at his house in Delhi on Monday due to age-related ailments. He was 86 years old.
He was the husband of famed artist TK Padmini, who passed away in 1969, when she was only 29. Padmini and Damodaran were married only for a year when she passed away after complications developed from childbirth. The child did not survive either.
The TK Padmini Memorial Trust sent out a release on the passing of Damodaran, calling him an artist interested in philosophy, who tried to incorporate a broad world of themes into his art, from his early days.
Damodaran, born in Thalassery in Kannur, got a diploma in Fine Arts under the tutelage of legendary artist KCS Paniker, at the Chennai College of Fine Arts. He finished the course in 1966. After his studies in Madras, he moved to Delhi.
In the years that followed, Damodaran took part in many art exhibitions across the country and abroad. Critics have taken note of his abstract style of art. Forty years after finishing his diploma, Damodaran got the Kerala Lalithakala Academy Fellowship. He has also received several state and national recognitions for his work.
It was in May 1968 that he got married to Padmini. She too had been an alumnus of the Chennai College of Fine Arts, finishing her six-year course in four years, with two double promotions. Her first exhibition was in Kozhikode and she had several after that, in different parts of the country. Her paintings are of village landscapes and rural life. The TK Padmini Memorial Trust took a biopic on her life, and the film was directed by Susmesh Chandroth. Actor Anumol played Padmini.
After the death of TK Padmini, Damodaran got married to Maheshwari and had two children.
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