K. Venkatappa

K. Venkatappa (1886–1965) was a pioneer painter, sculptor and an exponent of veena. He was born into a family of court painters in the princely state of Mysore, present day Karnataka. He was a pupil of Abanindranath Tagore. He was best known for his watercolors, with sensible realism. His Ootacamund watercolors reflect his independent vision.

In 1974, The Government of Karnataka established a dedicated art gallery in Bengaluru in Venkatappa's name called the Venkatappa Art Gallery also referred to as the VAG. At VAG his watercolors and plaster bas reliefs are displayed alongside other spaces meant for use by other artists as gallery spaces.

Venkatappa was born in a family of Chitrakara, who were the court painters of the Mysore Kingdom and artisans under the Vijaynagaran kings. From an early age he was taught into the art of painting and assisted his father in the palace of Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV. The Maharaja appreciated his talents and encouraged him to study further in the Government School of Art, Calcutta, which he attended from 1909 to 1916. There, he studied under Abanindranath Tagore with students such as Nandalal Bose, and was met with appreciation.

Venkatappa's paintings were predominantly watercolor, in contrast to a popular movement in the Mysore court to oils during his time, following Ravi Varma. Venkatappa was an eccentric, distancing himself from Tagore and his other students by retiring to the court, but also resisting his position as a simple court artisan by rejecting commissions that constrained his style and did not match his expected compensation; rejecting salaried positions tying him to the palace or other institutions and painting in a modern style. He "made a self-conscious attempt to assume the position of a distracted genius, indifferent to the mundane world of praise and profit." This, along with his study of veena - in whose pursuit he largely abandoned painting, kept him at a distance from the art world until his discovery by James Cousins and a sale of art to the Mysore Yuvaraja in 1924.

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