Karunakaran The Artist

Directed by : T V Chandran
Produced by : Ayillian Karunakaran
DOP : Raji Prasaad
Editor : Johnkutty
C. N. Karunakaran was born in 1940 at Brahmakulam, a village near Guruvayur in Thrissur District of Kerala. He contracted typhoid while he was a child and the complications from the disease crippled him in one of his legs. Through most of his childhood, he was undergoing ayurvedic treatment because of which he could not pursue academic studies. His formal training in art was at the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai where he learned under such as D. P. Roy Choudhury and K. C. S. Paniker to secure two diplomas; one in design and another in advanced painting.
He stayed in Chennai even after his studies, making advertisement films and working as an art director in a few Malayalam films. In 1970, he shifted his base to Kochi where he became involved with Kerala Kalapeedom (Kerala Institute of Arts). Here, he had the opportunity to interact with a host of like-minded people such as M. V. Devan, Kanayi Kunhiraman, A. C. K. Raja, Namboothiri, K. P. Soman, M. K. K. Nair, C. N. Sreekantan Nair, M. K. Sanu, Pattathuvila Karunakaran, M. Thomas Mathew and T. Ramachandran. Three years later, he founded Chitrakoodam, the first privately-owned art gallery in Kerala but the initiative ran only for four years until 1977. He was also involved with Ochre, another private art gallery in Kochi. Subsequently, he focused his career mainly on painting and illustrations; Manorama Weekly, Kalakaumudi, Kerala Kaumudi Weekly, Malayalanadu, Chintha, Deshabhimani Weekly, Kumkumam, Mathrubhumi Weekly, Bhashaposhini and India Today were some of the publications he illustrated for. He also illustrated Lore and Legends of Kerala, the English translation of Aithihyamala, published by Oxford University Press.
Karaunakaran as married to Easwari, and the couple had a son, Ayillyan Karunakaran and a daughter, Ammini. He died in Kochi on December 14, 2013, at the age of 73, succumbing to cardiac failure following a brief period of illness. The body was cremated at the Corporation of Cochin Ravipuram Crematorium.
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