Laxma Goud
Awarded with the Padma Shri in 2016 for his contribution towards arts, Kalal Laxma Goud is a versatile and prolific artist with an illustrious career spanning close to five decades. Having mastered several techniques, he seamlessly glides from one medium to the other, be it etching, gouache, pastel, sculpture (bronze, terracotta, etc), or glass painting. The celebrated artist has influenced several of his contemporaries with his compelling drawings as well as etchings that reflect a superior skill set.
Born in 1940, K. Laxma Goud hails from Nizampur, Telangana. He completed his diploma in Drawing and Painting from the Government College of Fine Arts and Architecture, Hyderabad, and later on studied Mural Painting and Printmaking at the Faculty of Fine Arts at M.S. University, Baroda, under the guidance of master artist K.G. Subramanyan.
At the core of the artist’s initial paintings lies the recurring theme of rural nostalgia merged with the surreal and erotic. He once said in an interview, “I come from a time when artists were facing a crisis of identity...There was a preoccupation to see how one stood out. For me the vehicle of expression I could lay claim to was my rural background - the village and its folklore with its elements of eroticism.”
There is a palpable energy that echoes through the artist's strokes and textures. Goud is known for his dramatic work where his subjects portray a raw and vivacious appeal. In his own words, he “adopted the man and woman with their grotesqueness and frankness”. During the later years, however, the artist gravitated towards a style that was more soft and introspective.