C. DOUGLAS

C. DOUGLAS (B. 1951)
Douglas has a Diploma in Painting from the Govt. College of Arts and Crafts,
Chennai (1976). Rated to be one of India’s next big artists, this unassuming man’s
extraordinary meekness and tenderness of spirit is manifest in his work, which
became increasingly picturesque with time.
From 1981 to 1988 he lived in West Germany, his paintings gradually softer and
less structured. His acquaintance with the New Expressionists, Clemente and
Anselm Kiefer stimulate his fully mature work- after his return to Cholamandal
in Chennai. Fragmentation, absence and emptiness are conveyed in Douglas’s
paintings through a non-hierarchical arrangement of disjointed mannequins,
broken objects, birds, toys and human figures. Stronger eventually, his works
have harsh, mild, angular human figures, often with masks or only foetus set man
unclear, permeable space which in a tactile as well as symbolic way blends signs
and evocations of a civilization palimpsest. In it indistinct but wide suggestions of
personal and general narratives situations, values and art-historical quotations
add to a sense of an entire life journey. Experience of fragility of light and dark
gives him a lot of happiness.
Douglas has widely exhibited in France, Germany, The Netherlands, and India.
He has been honored – Tamil Nadu State Lalit Kala Academy, Chennai, 1980 –
1990; Bharat Bhavan Biennale, Bhopal ,1990; National Award for Painting, Lalit
Kala Akademi, New Delhi, 1992; UNESCO grant to work at European Ceramics
Centre, Netherlands, 1994 and Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship, 1994.