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Madhavan was born in Trivandrum (Thiruvanathapuram) into an Asari community family. His father was a specialist in ivory and wood carving. He attended St. Joseph’s High School there and then earned a diploma at The School of Arts and Crafts, Trivandrum. He shifted to Madras in 1929, and like many other artists of the period, found work with drama companies as an actor, singer and painter of backdrops. The artist became famous for his cover artwork on many popular magazines and journals. Later, he produced calendar art. A flowing brush style and romantic subjects are his trademarks.

He worked for Kanniya Company, K.S.K Nadar and T.K. Brothers, and learned backdrop painting from Hussain Bux. He in turn included amongst his students, Kandaswamy, Dharmadas, Kuppaswamy, R. Natarajan, and Balan (of Balan Arts).

Madhavan applied his skills to a wide range of forms within the genre of popular art. He was perhaps most widely recognized for his covers of Tamil weekly and bi-monthly magazines, including Uma, Muttaram, Kalaimakal, Kalavallai, Nalayini, Kamarai, Kaveri, Savi, Kalki and Anantha Vikatan. It was, perhaps for this work that he earned the title, “the Norman Rockwell of South India”.

He painted sets and did banners of cinema studios, including Madras’ Gemini Studios in the 1940’s (K. Jain, 2007, p.152). His wife told me he had received the title of “Oviya Mannar” (king of banners) from C. N. Annadurai. He was also active in the production of cinema posters. “In South India, it was K. Madhavan who set the pattern for film posters. Each cinema house had an in-house artist who used posters to create a large mural at the entrance to the cinema house” (V. Geetha et al, The Hindu, Jan.15th, 2008). He became associated with the Safire, Yeshwant Veecumsee’s first multi-theatre complex in India on Mount Road. It opened in 1964 with the Safire, Emerald, and Blue Diamond, and closed in the 1980’s. The lobby was still decorated with K. Madhavan’s framed paintings when I first visited the theatre in the early 1970’s.

Throughout his career, he painted for the calendar and picture framing market. His earliest design was apparently for Burmah-Shell and some notables are images for T.A.S. Rathnam Snuff calendars. His flowing style and sweet expressions are unmistakable and became a signature for the style of popular imagery in Tamilnadu in the mid-20th century.

Born: 1907
Died: 1979