Krishna Reddy, American born India, 1925-2018

Print-maker, sculptor, teacher

from a 2025 exhibition of a gift of his prints to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

 

Reddy was born in Nandanoor, Andra Pradesh in a family of farm workers.  His father also painted temple murals.

 

He became a student of Rishi Valley School, also in Andra Pradesh, established by the philosopher, Jiddu Krishnamurti, on the principles of inquiry, self-awareness, and lifelong learning.

 

Later he studied with Nandalal Bose at Rabindranath Tagore’s alternative (to the British colonial education model) art college Visva-Bharati, (now Visva-Bharati University) at Santiniketan in West Bengal. 

 

His abstract representations of nature have their origin with the training he received at Santiniketan in biology and botany; and in the hours he spent observing and drawing outside under the trees and in the fields in the brillinnt sunlight of his native land. 

 

Their deep origin is the Hinduism into which he was born and which his relationship with Krishnamurti, his mentor and friend for life, shaped and deepened.  Reddy believed that cosmic energy connects all natural forms, which are ever-changing. 

 

In his prints of natural forms, it is as though he represented not their outer shape but their life force: the energy which propulses them into the shapes and colours which we see; and which changes these shapes and colours across the span of their lives. 

 

 

Natural forms

 

 

Two Forms in One, 1954, colour viscosity print 

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

Krishnamurti recommended Reddy to the Slade School of Fine Art in London where he worked in 1949 as studio assistant to Henry Moore (1898-1986, British).  

 

In 1950 Reddy  moved to Paris to study sculpture with Ossip Zadkine (1888-1967, French born Russia) at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière where he received a Certificate in Fine Arts in 1955.

 

During this time, Zadkine introduced him to Stanley William Hayter’s (1901-1988, British) celebrated experimental print workshop, Atelier 17, because he thought the young artist possessed extraordinary graphic talents.

 

 

Two Fishes, 1957, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

Reddy continued his studies in sculpture with Marino Marini (1901-1980, Italian) at the Academia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan where he received a Certificate in Fine Arts in 1957.

Thereafter, he resumed working on printmaking techniques at Atelier 17 in Paris. 

 

 

 

 

Wave, 1958, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

Atelier 17 was laid out as a very large open studio. 

Artists were encouraged to circulate and share their ideas.  Reddy mixed here with Max Ernst, Juan Miro; and Alberto Giacometti whose work, along with that of Constantin Brancusi whom he met in Paris, deeply influenced him.

 

 

 

Waterform, zinc imprinting plate used to create prints, 1966

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

Intaglio print is a process where ink is applied to the incised areas of a surface scored into a metal plate, usually copper or zinc.

The incisions are made by etching with acids; or by physically engraving the metal using hand and machine tools.  Reddy also used a sander sometimes.  

The design is transferred to paper by means of a high-pressure roller press.

 

Reddy experimented both with materials and with the sculptural aspects of printmaking.

 

 

 

Waterform, 1966, colour viscosity prints, 1966

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India. Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

 

 

Observing one day the properties of linseed oil, the artist collaborated with Hayter and the Indian  artist, Kaiko Moti (Kaikobad Motiwalla, 1921-1989, French born India) to evolve a new technique which simplifies the process of printing different colors in intaglio.

 

The technique they perfected  – viscosity, also known as mixed color intaglio, or intaglio simultaneous color printing –  uses just one plate. Colored inks of different viscosities are layered with specialized rollers to create a multicolored image in just one pass through the press.

 

Without this technique, every color requires its own etched plate so that creating a multicolor image is a laborious process with multiple use of the press and a skilled hand-eye to ensure that the layers of colors line up correctly.

 

 

 

Pastoral, 1958, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

Three Graces, 1958, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

Often, Reddy made modifications in a plate which rendered dazzling changes in a design, recognizable from one plate to another. 

 

Sometimes he completely reworked plates or a portion of them. And he varied the colours he used. 

 

 

Water Lilies, 1959, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

 

River, 1960, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

 

The Whirlpool, 1963, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

Spider Web, 1964, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

 

Blossoming, 1965, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

Human form

 

Reddy lived through both the Bengal Famine of 1943 and the Indian Independence movement for whom he made hundreds of posters for distribution beginning in 1942.

He remained sympathetic all his life to socially progressive movements, including the Algerian independence movement.

 

 

 

Demonstrators, 1968, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

A response to the protests in France which began in May 1968.

 

 

 

Three Figures, 1967, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

 

Praying Woman, 1970, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

 

Woman and Her Relections, 1970, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

 

Life Movement, 1972, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

 

Apu Crawling, 1975, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

Aparna is the artist’s daughter.

 

 

 

Seated Figure with Runners, 1979, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

 

Trapeze, 1978, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

Here a resurgence of the symmetrical patterns of Indian handblock.

 

 

He eventually became co-director of Atelier 17;  and the foremost practitioner of intaglio colour viscosity printing.

 

 

The Great Clown, 1981, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India

 

 

From the mid-1960s onwards, Reddy’s skills became widely known in North American print-making circles.  He took up several teaching opportunities including at the oldest collaborative printmaking center in country:  the Robert Blackburn Print Center, founded in 1947.  He continued to teach there for 30 years.

 

Recipient in 1972 of  the prestigious Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1972, the artist finally made his home in New York.

 

 

 

The Great Clown, 1981, colour viscosity print

Krishna Reddy, 1925-2018, American born India. Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

 

In 1976, Reddy was asked to establish the printmaking department at New York University.   He taught there for 40 years becoming professor emeritus of art and art education in 2002. 

 

Krishna Reddy is known for his prints.  But he said sculpture was his first love and he continued to create sculptures in bronze, terracotta, stone, and marble.

 

The artist died in New York at 93 in 2018.

 

 

Krishna Reddy left both an artistic and a sociological legacy of great importance for the evolution of printmaking.

 

His work is a rendering on paper of his philosophy – the unitary consciousness which connects all forms and which effects the shapes and colours of our ever-changing environments.

 

He also left networks of community and co-operation among his students and their students in imitation of his open, generous, collaborative, quietly ambitious practice of the art and craft of printmaking.