Watercolour on Paper

14 x 11 In.

Signed & Dated

Year - 1983

A key figure of the Madras Art Movement, M. Suriyamoorthy forged a distinctive visual language that merged modernist form with the folk and mural traditions of South India. These nine compositions revolve around one of the most enduring motifs in his practice: the mother–child dyad, rendered with rhythmic line and a palette that echoes earth, clay, textile dyes, and ritual body colours.

Suriyamoorthy’s figures sit cross-legged or folded into compact space, their bodies outlined in thick confident strokes while patterns reminiscent of kolam grids, textile borders, Lepakshi fresco curves, and rural domestic interiors animate the background. Jewellery, bangles, anklets and vessels appear as recurring anchors — markers of region and culture.

The artist was known for his material experimentation — using river water, seashell-based pigments, and medicinal preparations from his father’s Siddha practice — to produce works that retained tonal depth and surface vitality over time. Even within a recurring subject, each sheet here varies in mood and gesture: the mother sometimes protective, sometimes playful, sometimes absorbed, always central.