Ramanna Suri, a renowned veteran artist of several accomplishments to his credit has bagged the prestigious ‘Chitra Shilpi DV Halabhavi Memorial National Award’ for 2021. The Dharwad based DV Halabhavi Memorial National Trust under the aegis of the Government of Karnataka has chosen R Suri for the coveted award for lifetime achievements. The national memorial Trust also has a practice of recognizing talented artists from across the country with ‘Kuncha Kalashree’ and ‘Yuva Kuncha Kalashree’ awards annually.
DV Halabhavi happens to be a household name in the North Karnataka region for imparting art education through his ‘School of Art’. Probably thousands of talents blossomed through his art school over several decades. However, after his demise, functioning became a challenge. After facing an adverse situation for a period, it was later handed over to the Mysuru based JSS Group of Institutions. Hence, now it is renamed as JSS-School of Art and is functioning on a bigger campus.
In fact, R Suri’s entry and journey into the art world for a lifetime by itself is a colourful flashback of interesting incidents and events. Art wasn’t a hereditary gift to him like many blessed artists. However, the absence of such a background was no hindrance for him to plunge into the art life.
Born and brought up in Bengaluru: R Suri’s father Ramanna hailed from Kamasamudra village of Holenarasipura Taluk in Hassan district and had settled in Bengaluru. R Suri was born on 21 January 1949 and brought up in the state’s capital city. Interestingly, the family was living in the busy and typically commercial Majestic area. The then Kempegowda Road in the locality had movie theatres all along and on both sides.
Since childhood, R Suri developed a curious interest in fine arts. He was fascinated by the drawings and sketches in the school textbooks and developed a tendency of scribbling similar pictures. The attraction towards drawing became so intense that soon after SSLC; he completely dedicated himself to the vast field of arts.
Film Banners become a stepping stone: Thanks to the close vicinity of theatres nearby the house, the Kannada, Tamil and Telugu film banners began to haunt the young boy in his teens. He was carried away by the works of painters, as they used to be called then. His urge to dwell in the art world compelled him to make a move into the film banner painting profession. As there were none to teach him professionally in the field, he felt the need of learning it academically. Then someone suggested him join Kalamandira run by the art legend AN Subbarao.
It was in Kalamandira, he came in contact with the alumnus BK Srinivas Varma who later became renowned as BKS Varma. The latter was working as Chief Artist with ‘Mallige’ monthly periodical. He provided an opportunity for R Suri to begin his professional life as a layout artist. It was a maiden job, but from then onwards there was no looking back for him later. Not only that, he decided to bid adieu to the job profession once for all when he still had several years of service.
National Award at the age of 27! : R Suri has several feats in his professional life. Much before entering the professional life, his coloured artwork on Kempegowda, founder of Bengaluru adorned the then launched ‘Sudha’ weekly magazine. In those times, he received a hefty sum of Rs 100/- as an honorarium. Unfortunately, the money had to be spent for the funeral rites of his mother Thimmakka. It was his first earning. After being in ‘Mallige’ Kannada monthly from 1969-71, he left for the coastal town Manipal.
Good-Bye to a monotonous job: Though he was left with some more years of active service, R Suri felt enough of a monotonous job. He decided to quit the well-paid job and indulge in freelancing on a full-time basis. But, once he left the job, he became busier. He started getting assignments from various departments of the state and central governments. Information and Public Relations Department, Forest, Tourism, Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), Kannada and Culture Department are a few of them who have made the best use of his talent.
Kanakadasa drawing becomes the logo of Kurubara Sangha: His works continue to be made use of by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) for several of its products. But the drawing of Saint Kanakadasa, a revered poet, a philosopher turned out to be a big hit. Though it was originally designed for the Kannada and Culture Department, the state Kurubara Sangha adopted the picture as its logo!
-Manohar Yadavatti
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| Ramanna Suri |
DV Halabhavi happens to be a household name in the North Karnataka region for imparting art education through his ‘School of Art’. Probably thousands of talents blossomed through his art school over several decades. However, after his demise, functioning became a challenge. After facing an adverse situation for a period, it was later handed over to the Mysuru based JSS Group of Institutions. Hence, now it is renamed as JSS-School of Art and is functioning on a bigger campus.
In fact, R Suri’s entry and journey into the art world for a lifetime by itself is a colourful flashback of interesting incidents and events. Art wasn’t a hereditary gift to him like many blessed artists. However, the absence of such a background was no hindrance for him to plunge into the art life.
Born and brought up in Bengaluru: R Suri’s father Ramanna hailed from Kamasamudra village of Holenarasipura Taluk in Hassan district and had settled in Bengaluru. R Suri was born on 21 January 1949 and brought up in the state’s capital city. Interestingly, the family was living in the busy and typically commercial Majestic area. The then Kempegowda Road in the locality had movie theatres all along and on both sides.
Since childhood, R Suri developed a curious interest in fine arts. He was fascinated by the drawings and sketches in the school textbooks and developed a tendency of scribbling similar pictures. The attraction towards drawing became so intense that soon after SSLC; he completely dedicated himself to the vast field of arts.
Film Banners become a stepping stone: Thanks to the close vicinity of theatres nearby the house, the Kannada, Tamil and Telugu film banners began to haunt the young boy in his teens. He was carried away by the works of painters, as they used to be called then. His urge to dwell in the art world compelled him to make a move into the film banner painting profession. As there were none to teach him professionally in the field, he felt the need of learning it academically. Then someone suggested him join Kalamandira run by the art legend AN Subbarao.
It was in Kalamandira, he came in contact with the alumnus BK Srinivas Varma who later became renowned as BKS Varma. The latter was working as Chief Artist with ‘Mallige’ monthly periodical. He provided an opportunity for R Suri to begin his professional life as a layout artist. It was a maiden job, but from then onwards there was no looking back for him later. Not only that, he decided to bid adieu to the job profession once for all when he still had several years of service.
National Award at the age of 27! : R Suri has several feats in his professional life. Much before entering the professional life, his coloured artwork on Kempegowda, founder of Bengaluru adorned the then launched ‘Sudha’ weekly magazine. In those times, he received a hefty sum of Rs 100/- as an honorarium. Unfortunately, the money had to be spent for the funeral rites of his mother Thimmakka. It was his first earning. After being in ‘Mallige’ Kannada monthly from 1969-71, he left for the coastal town Manipal.
There he joined the Udayavani group of publications. He got a lot of encouragement from Dr Vijaya, AS Murthy, and Mohandas Pai for his professional growth. The layout design of R Suri for the Deepavali issue of Udayavani rewarded him the national award. It was for the first time that a Kannada magazine got such an accolade. Then, he was only 27 years old! He also holds the unique distinction of being the first Kannada artist to receive a national award for a magazine design.
First Chief Artist of ‘Tushar’ Kannada Digest: While in Manipal, Udayavani launched the ‘Tushar’ monthly magazine. R Suri became the first Chief Artist of the periodical. But his talent was not just restricted to ‘Tushar’ magazine alone. Along with special issues of Udayavani, R Suri was also instrumental in giving a shape to the then launched ‘Roopatara’ film magazine as well. His experiments with the brush and colour for drawings, sketches, illustrations, paintings, designs and layouts are innumerable. Perhaps, his works, styles and trends renovating to the requirements of changing times deserve a thorough study apart from being a subject for Ph. D thesis.
Back to Bengaluru: He married Susheela in 1975 and the couple was blessed with son Chethan and daughter Prakruthi while in Manipal. After a satisfactory stint in Manipal and runaway Success with many an experiment, he made up his mind to return to his native city Bengaluru in 1980. For a year, he was associated with ‘Inchara’ magazine of the IBH Prakashana. In 1981, he joined the Prajavani group of publications. He remained there for a record period of 19 years. His cover designs for ‘Sudha’ weekly, artworks for magazine supplements of Prajavani, cartoons and coloured paintings for serials continued to remain a visual treat worth recalling.
First Chief Artist of ‘Tushar’ Kannada Digest: While in Manipal, Udayavani launched the ‘Tushar’ monthly magazine. R Suri became the first Chief Artist of the periodical. But his talent was not just restricted to ‘Tushar’ magazine alone. Along with special issues of Udayavani, R Suri was also instrumental in giving a shape to the then launched ‘Roopatara’ film magazine as well. His experiments with the brush and colour for drawings, sketches, illustrations, paintings, designs and layouts are innumerable. Perhaps, his works, styles and trends renovating to the requirements of changing times deserve a thorough study apart from being a subject for Ph. D thesis.
Back to Bengaluru: He married Susheela in 1975 and the couple was blessed with son Chethan and daughter Prakruthi while in Manipal. After a satisfactory stint in Manipal and runaway Success with many an experiment, he made up his mind to return to his native city Bengaluru in 1980. For a year, he was associated with ‘Inchara’ magazine of the IBH Prakashana. In 1981, he joined the Prajavani group of publications. He remained there for a record period of 19 years. His cover designs for ‘Sudha’ weekly, artworks for magazine supplements of Prajavani, cartoons and coloured paintings for serials continued to remain a visual treat worth recalling.
Good-Bye to a monotonous job: Though he was left with some more years of active service, R Suri felt enough of a monotonous job. He decided to quit the well-paid job and indulge in freelancing on a full-time basis. But, once he left the job, he became busier. He started getting assignments from various departments of the state and central governments. Information and Public Relations Department, Forest, Tourism, Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), Kannada and Culture Department are a few of them who have made the best use of his talent.
Kanakadasa drawing becomes the logo of Kurubara Sangha: His works continue to be made use of by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) for several of its products. But the drawing of Saint Kanakadasa, a revered poet, a philosopher turned out to be a big hit. Though it was originally designed for the Kannada and Culture Department, the state Kurubara Sangha adopted the picture as its logo!
-Manohar Yadavatti
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