it was an unfortunate wednesday morning for the art fraternity of hyderabad which woke up to the news of passing away of a muchloved son one of the leading lights of contemporary art in india surya prakash breathed his last at his banjara hills residence after a cardiac arrest at around 8 am he was 79 with his demise curtains fell on one of the most glorious chapters in the annals of indian art as his good friend thota vaikuntam a decorated artist himself eloquently describes an artist par excellence he was no doubt and his body of work stands testimony to his calibre but his contribution goes much beyond the pathbreaking art he created surya prakash was a friend philosopher and guide to many artists in the city his demise is a great loss to the art community of not just the telugu speaking states but all of indiasurya prakashs life makes for a truly fascinating story that began in a town called madhira in khammam district his father who took an active part in local politics did not approve of prakashs love for art and thought hed end up as a drawing teacher however it was in the film screenings that his father organised for villagers in make shift structures that surya prakash found his first brush with art the film posters and collages fascinated me no end and id just indulge myself in them for hours together the late artist would often say while talking about how he became an artist by virtue of the poor marks he got in puc i was a poor student in school and absolutely dreaded mathematics i somehow scraped through my 10th grade but struggled quite a bit in my puc i passed by a narrow margin but did not get admission anywhere recalled surya prakash speaking about how he got enrolled into the fine arts college baroda and later the government college of fine arts architecture jntu hyderabad at a retrospective of his art works that was held recently it was here that surya prakash met laxma goud and devraj dakoji both his juniors by a few years how these young lads from laidback hyderabad went on to build a strong bond build a name for themselves in the world of contemporary indian art and forge a trio of sorts that could be regarded as one of the first art collectives in modern india is the stuff of legends the mere mention of those days gets laxma goud tearyeyed we grew up together as artists in a garage in himayathnagar for 15 years were worked there we didnt have money to even buy tea so wed share one cup those we some days says goud trailing off that garage went on be known as studio 35700 and became a cultural hub bringing together some of the most talked about artists from across the country this in a city that had never even heard of studios was as avant garde