Kanaka Murthy

Murthy was born in a brahmin family[1] on 2 December 1942 in Tirumakudal Narsipur, Mysore district, in the state of Karnataka, in India.[2][3] Murthy attended college in Bengaluru, where she earned a Bachelor in Sciences, and later studied at Kalamandira, an arts college, where she trained in painting, drawing, and sculpture.[2] She also studied sculpture with D Vadiraja, a well-known local sculptor.[2] She married Narayana Murthy and they had a son, Rumi Harish.[4] On 14 May 2021, she died of COVID-19 at the age of 79, in Bengaluru.[5]

Murthy worked primarily in stone, using sandstone, shell stone, and granite. Although trained in the Hoysala style of sculpture, she explored other schools and forms of sculpture.[6] She also sculpted in bronze, fibreglass, and clay.[3] She has also worked with schist, despite the fact that it is easily split, in consonance with sculptural tradition in the state of Karnataka.[7]

Murthy was known for her sculpted stone portraits, primarily busts. She notably created busts of several classical Carnatic and Hindustani musicians, including Gangubai Hangal, Doraiswamy Iyengar, T Chowdiah, Mallikarjuna Mansur and Bhimsen Joshi.[2] A number of her stone portrait busts were commissioned and are installed in public places in Bengaluru, Karnataka. These include a bust of the poet and writer Kuvempu, located at the west gate of Lalbagh Park, and a fibreglass statue of the Wright brothers at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum.[5][8] In total, 200 of her sculptures have been installed in public spaces in India.[9]

Murthy spoke in several interviews about the challenges of breaking into the profession of sculpture, which was traditionally male-dominated, as a woman.[5][10] She was one of the few women in Karnataka to create sculptures for religious worship in temples.[3][4] Murthy has also stated that her inspiration to take up sculpting was from visiting temples containing religious sculptures in Mysuru.[11] A number of her sculptures of Hindu idols are installed in places of worship, including an eight foot high idol of the Hindu god Ganesha, commissioned for a religious foundation dedicated to spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba at Puttaparthi.[6]

She also wrote four books, including an autobiography.[2] One book, titled Shilpa Rekha, is an account of traditional line drawings in Karnataka.[5] She also wrote a biography of her guru Devalakunda Vadiraj.[12]

Murthy won a number of state awards for her work, including the Karnataka Jakanachari Award, State Shilpakala Academy Award (1999), the Rajyotsava Award (1996)[13] and Suvarna Karnataka Award.[5][14] She is the only woman to have received the Janakachari Award.[6]