M. Suriyamoorthy Charcoal Art On Paper 1964 (#19)

A part of a series of charcoal art on paper, signed M. Suriyamoorthy and dated 1/9/64. This framed 4 x 3 feet semi-abstract art is untitled, it appears to depict a woman and a man’s face seen on the sideline. A prolific artist, Suriyamoorthy hailing from South India was born in 1944.

Almost all his paintings and artworks are fascinating to the point of being mesmerized by their unusual appearance. Suriyamoorthy claimed to have evolved a unique style of his own, which seems evident in his charcoal and other artworks. He had a remarkable method of formulating colors from natural resources like seashells, barks of trees, gums from tree trunks, etc.

This may be one of the reasons his paintings stand out from the rest. He derived his own distinct style of women being centralized in most of his art. His paintings and art have won many awards in India and abroad. Art galleries and museums in Europe and America exhibited Suriyamoorthy’s artworks. Some museums abroad also own his paintings and other artworks.

On a lighter note, he had his eccentricities too. To evade being thrown into jail for striking a traffic policeman while drunk, he was asked to feign mental illness by his lawyer. This eventually landed him in a mental institution, he spent his time there painting in secrecy. He died at the age of 68 in 2012. Click on the photo for better view.