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An Artist and An Organiser
Surya Prakash has come a long way from being
written off as a dull and talentless child to being
regarded as responsible for the subsistence of art in
Hyderabad.
 Surya
Prakash was born in 1940 in Madhira, Andhra Pradesh
and his father was an organiser of cinema shows. Surrounded
by the colourful posters showcasing popular movie stars,
he was thoroughly enamoured by them. His penchant for
drawing and painting evolved here.
 In
1956 he entered the College of Fine Arts, Hyderabad.
Vidya Bhushan, his teacher, with his masterly
portraits, still life and copies of Ajanta frescos in
egg-tempera, impressed and influenced his works. Surya
Prakash took a diploma in painting and an advanced diploma
in portrait painting.
After the art school and a three-year stint in a government
job, Surya Prakash got a small financial grant from
the Andhra Pradesh State Lalit Kala Akademi to
go to Delhi and study under guru Ram Kumar. It
was around this time when Opus, one of his works,
won a national award.
 His
forte was that he was also an adept organiser. He took
art to the corporates by organising shows and events
for the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology,
L V Prasad's Eye Institute, Sanghi Industries and
the Max Mueller Bhavan. He even compiled the
Indian section for the Fifth India Triennial. By
this time his workshops and camps for painters and sculptors
were famous.
 In
1978, his monograph, Life and Work by the Andhra
Pradesh Lalit Kala Akademi and the 13 minute,
35 mm documentary Life and Work by Amaravathi
film Makers recorded for posterity the growth and
spread of Surya Prakash's creative works. His concern
for the ignored scene of art led him to set up his own
gallery in 1993. This gallery exhibits the works of
renowned Indian artists. Hyderabadis would never have
enjoyed the works of so many different kinds of quality
works by so many renowned artists, if not for the gallery.
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