Cholamandal Artists' Village
Cholamandal Artists' Village, established in 1966, is the largest artists' commune in India. Its artists are credited for the Madras Movement of Art (1950s–1980s), which brought modernism to art in South India. Their work is widely recognized as some of the best art produced in postwar India and is shown regularly in galleries across the country. Several Cholamandal artists have also shown in Europe, the United States and South America.
In the village Injambakkam, 9 km from Chennai, India, it has over 20 resident painters and sculptors, who live as a community and pool their skills. They run the Artists Handicrafts Association, a cooperative which manages the village and sale of works through the permanent exhibition at the complex, which includes paintings, sketches, terra-cotta/stone/metal sculptures, batiks and handicrafts etc., making the village a self-supporting entity.
The community was founded by K. C. S. Paniker, the principal of the Madras School of Arts, along with his students and a few artists associated with the college. It used the `art-meets-craft' approach where artists made handicrafts for a living as they pursued their art. By the 1970s, the village became self-sufficient and grew into one of the most important meeting places for international artists in India. Today, it is one of the few artist-driven movements in India. Four decades on, it is one of the few artists' colonies in the world to survive successfully and its foundation remains one of the "10 biggest art moments" in India.
Most of the original founding creative artists, painters and sculptors were students and artists associated with the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Chennai (Madras School of Arts), where K.C.S. Paniker, noted metaphysical and abstract painter, was principal 1957 to 1967. These artists desired to form a congenial space for practising their art; 38 of them got together and formed the 'Artists Handicrafts Association' (AHA) in 1963 initially to sell the works of artists.
Gradually, the artists started working together, producing handicrafts in their spare time. They were among the first in the country to produce batik fabric; proceeds of their first batik exhibition went into buying the 8.5 acres (34,000 m2) of land in 1966, which was to make up the village. By now K.C.S. Paniker had retired and founded the artists commune in April 1966.
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