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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2018}}
'''C. K. Ramakrishnan Nair''' (1917 – 16 September 1994), popularly known as '''C.K. Ra''', was an [[Indian people|Indian]] [[painting|painter]], writer, and teacher of [[fine arts]]. An advocate of creative freedom, Ramakrishnan Nair was credited with bringing modernism in Kerala painting and heralded the 'Ra phase' in Kerala painting.<ref name=samskarakeralam>{{cite journal|last=Charummood|first=Aburaj|title=Asatharana Vikarangalude Chitrakaaran|journal=Samskarakeralam|language=ml|date=October–December 1993|volume=7|issue=4|pages=50–53}}</ref> He served as the Superintendent of the [[College of Fine Arts Trivandrum|Trivandrum School of Arts]] and later became the chairman of [[Kerala Lalita Kala Akademi]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Data India|year=1994|publisher=[[Press Trust of India]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIRDAAAAYAAJ&q=%22CK+ramakrishnan+nair%22}}</ref>

==Biography==

C. K. Ra was born in [[Thiruvalla]] to K. Ramavarma Koithampuran of ''Paliakara Kottaram'' and Sankaravelil Kunjukuttiyamma.<ref name=samskarakeralam /> He had his initial training at Ravi Varma School of Painting, [[Mavelikara]] under Rama Varma, the younger son of [[Raja Ravi Varma]].<ref name="essays">{{cite book|last=P.J. Cherian, B. Rajeevan|title=Essays on the cultural formation of Kerala: literature, art, architecture, music, theatre and cinema|year=1999|publisher=KCHR Publications|url=http://www.keralahistory.ac.in/painting.htm|access-date=16 October 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721150712/http://www.keralahistory.ac.in/painting.htm|archive-date=21 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> After completion of his studies in [[Mavelikkara]], C. K. Ra went to Bombay to work with the British Information Department. During his stint at Bombay, he created a series of paintings about the torments of the [[Second World War]], including ''Peace after War'', ''Prelude to Revenge'', and ''Massacre''.<ref name="thiruvalla">{{cite web|title=Personalities|url=http://www.thiruvalla.com/thiruvallapersonalities.htm|access-date=3 October 2011}}</ref> When the war was over he left Bombay and took to teaching, first at a school in [[Coimbatore]] and later at the Ravi Varma School of Painting, Mavelikara.<ref name="essays" /> C.K. Ra had a brief period of training in [[Santiniketan]] and became a disciple of [[Jamini Roy]] and [[Nandalal Bose]]. When he returned to Kerala to work at the [[College of Fine Arts Trivandrum]] it was the beginning of the 'Ra phase' in Kerala painting.<ref name=samskarakeralam /><ref name="thiruvalla" /> Some of the memorable paintings of this period were ''Temple Fantasia'', ''Washing Hair'', and ''Delightful Pain'' work that aspire to transcend the practiced responses to color form and meaning.<ref name=rhythm>{{cite book|title=Rhythm|year=1964|publisher=A. Mukherjee}}</ref> Among C.K. Ra's contemporaries who were based in Trivandrum include, his disciple Chirayinkil Sreekantan Nair, G. Rajendran , B.D. Dethan and N.Divakaran all of whom were the former students of the Trivandrum School of Arts and the self-taught painter and novelist [[Malayattoor Ramakrishnan]].<ref name="essays" /><ref name=chithravartha>{{cite journal|last=Sasibhooshan|first=M.G.|title=Margadeepam|journal=Chithravartha|language=ml|date=January 1995|pages=5–7}}</ref> C.K. Ra also wrote on modernism in paintings.

==References==
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{{Painters from Kerala}}

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[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Malayali people]]
[[Category:Raja Ravi Varma College of Fine Arts alumni]]
[[Category:Artists from Thiruvananthapuram]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian painters]]
[[Category:Painters from Kerala]]
[[Category:People from Thiruvalla]]

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C. K. Ra - Revision history

->Citation bot at 17:17, 19 December 2021