The Madras Metaphor: P S Nandhan

My earliest art essay in a book was on the Chennai-based sculptor, P S Nandan. He lives in the Cholamandal Artists Village at Injambakkam. 

An excerpt from the 1992 piece about this retiring, reticent artist:

"When Nandan, with his roots firmly embedded in the folk tradition turns to explore the realm of abstract sculpture in granite, wood, or metal, questions inevitably surface, both about his medium and his motivation. This is particularly true with regard to his current granite series titled 'Movement of Lines,' which twists out of the innards of solid rock the motion inherent in all natural forms, the rhythm of shore-bound waves, the sway of branches in mid-motion, the visual poetry of clouds as they move. Preserving the grainy texture of the substance, which is reverentially left undisturbed, the sculptor wrests from the unmoving mass spatial arrangements which harmonize the logical requirements of abstraction with the basic tenets of folk art..." 


The essay was commissioned by Prof. Josef James for the volume below:

  
Contemporary Indian Sculpture: The Madras Metaphor

Edited by Josef James
Oxford University Press
1993
168 pages
Hardcover
Rs. 750