Description

K. Laxma Goud was born in Nizampur, Medak district, Hyderabad, to Venka Goud and Anthamma. He is a painter, printmaker, and draughtsman who works in a variety of mediums including etching, gouache, pastel, sculpture and glass painting. He obtained a Diploma in painting from the Government College of Art and Architecture, Hyderabad. In 1963, he reached Baroda where he was exposed to contemporary art while learning traditional fresco techniques under the mentorship of K G Subrmanyan. After graduation, Goud made the unlikely step of returning to his village of Nizampur. With the newly educated viewpoint of an urban sophisticate, the artist found himself attracted to the unselfconscious attitudes toward sexuality that contributed to the relaxed atmosphere of village life. Laxma Goud began to interpret his childhood memories of rural and tribal vivacity through an urban grid in which surreal, libidinal tones mingled with fantasy and poetry. He created masterful small paintings of village life in a palette of monochrome grays. He also drew in pen and ink, and his drawings and etchings from this period are an interesting combination of village nostalgia, the surreal, and the erotic.