kolkata was he angry was he tired no k g subramanyan had simply turned 91 and the eagerness of the visitors whod showed up at the harrington street art centre hsac to greet him seemed to take a toll never mind if kg better known as manida perhaps the seniormost and also the most influential artist of the land today was not his usual engaging self his new works that have been travelling from baroda to delhi chandigarh to hyderabad chennai to bangalore and now on view in kolkata are as vibrant full of wit and social commentary as they have been for the past 50 years or more in fact more every single day in the past 70 years manida has painted on paper board canvas glass acrylic sheets terracotta plates in oil acrylic watercolour pen and ink used wood to make toys sculpted in other mediums breathed new life into wilting traditions given a new form to reverse glass painting crafted a contemporary identity for terracotta works penned his thoughts on art practices given new directions to rural and tribal arts and crafts rearticulated designs and textiles written poetry reinterpreted icons and renewed interest in mythical characters like hanuman and painted the contemporary art landscape obtaining in india or half a century now by mentoring artists like sheikh ghulam mohamad of baroda to laxma goud of hyderabad vivan sundaram of delhi and chhatrapati dutta of his own alma mater santiniketan if this vibrancy at 91 is itself to be celebrated there is a greater cause to rejoice manida is a living example of how an artist can tap older practices to add to the semantic resonances of his own work any artist who is not modern in his youth and traces his growth in tradition as he matures is not wise binode behari mukherjee once told r siva kumar manida was influenced by ram kinkar benode behari nandalal indias ancient art traditions in that order before he arrived at his own signature the art historian explains to this writer the santiniketan masters sensitised him to the requisites of a modernism alert to the environment and life around from them he learned to see art as a response to social and personal needs for communication and expression and to seek a perspective on art which has a broad cultural rather than a narrow professional horizon he writes this led him to pursue the varied roles of artist designer and teacher making them mutually enriching he concludes net result while most modern artists of the newly independent india remained tied to a style inspired by european concepts and practices narrowing their skills and articulation manida developed an idiom whose plasticity expanded the reach of his communication if his innovations brought to us his enduring vision in ever new avatars the nimble thinker himself moved ahead with times to think like gen x and y and rewrote how hanu became hanuman placed above