K.C.S. Paniker

Kovalezhi Cheerampathoor Sankaran Paniker was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu in the year 1911. He was a visionary and established the Cholamandal Artists’ Village in the year 1966. K.C.S.Paniker completed his formal education from the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Chennai in the year 1940. With the span of a few years he founded the Progressive Painters’ Association in Chennai in the year 1944. His career as a painter transmuted through three distinct periods, commencing with early watercolour paintings depicting the idyllic charm of Kerala’s backwater. The second phase focused more on the human form dwelling in the tapestry of Southern India’s foliage, while during his final phase he was concerned symbols and motifs which he derived from Kerala's arts and metaphysics. He was also appointed as the Principal of the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Chennai in 1957.

Throughout his career he received innumerable accolades and honours. In the year 1954 he was appointed as a member of Executive Board, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. He was one of the members of the Indian Delegation at the World Art Congress in New York in 1963. The artist passed away in 1977.;