The King of the Dark Chamber (Partial)

Partial view showing the left side of The King of the Dark Chamber by K.G. Subramanyan. This terracotta mural was made in 1963 for the Rabindralaya building in Lucknow, a performing arts centre, to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore.

The artwork, which measured 24.7m in width and 2.7m in height, comprised of around 13,000 individual tiles that were designed, glazed and fired en mass. The thickness of some of these tiles was up to approximately 0.09 square meters.


Context

'The King of Dark the Chamber' was a monumental mural project that staged a play by Rabindranath Tagore titled 'Arupratan'. This was the largest mural K.G. Subramanyan had made until then. It was planned in the early years of 1962 when he had received a commission.
Whereas only the initial drawing was executed in Baroda, the rest of the mural was executed in Lucknow after Subramanyan had written to the Chief Minister of Lucknow requesting for a studio space. A facility was in turn offered to him in the outskirts of Lucknow, in an area called Chinhat.
Since Subramanyan was teaching in the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda at the time, the mural was executed in two phases: first, during the Diwali vacations of 1962 (around October-November), and then during the summber vacations in 1963 when it was installed. Because this was the first time he worked on that scale, Subramanyan recalls making tiles four times the quantity that were required.
Working in a collaborative spirit, Subramanyan had invited his students from Baroda to participate in the making of this mural. Feroz Katpitia, Damodar Gajjar and Jyoti Bhatt were therefore present. It was then that Subramanyan met K.V. Jena in Lucknow who helped in firing. At the time of its installation in the second phase, Gyarsilal and his brother Kishori Lal were present along with Ramesh Pandya, Feroz Katpitia, R. Gajjar. Subramanyan recollects that Gajjar was at one time a student in the college and was looking for a job. So he took him to Lucknow to realize that Gajjar made for a great manager for the project.

Access level

Online

practitioner
Keywords
Publication/Creation date

1963

Creation place

India

Medium

Terracotta mural

Dimension

2.7m x 24.7m

Content type

artwork documentation

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The King of the Dark Chamber (Partial)