Cholamandal Artists' Village - Cholamandal Centre For Contemporary Art

Cholamandal Centre For Contemporary Art

During his last days Paniker had offered his oeuvre to the Madras government on the condition that a separate gallery be created for his work, when no response came from the government, eventually the Trivandrum Art Gallery took up the offer, an now houses an important collection of Paniker's work, but the artists at the village wanted a place for displaying all the works of Madras Movement at the place, thus idea of the art museum took place.

The artists raised money from the private sector to found a museum within the village, which would house a permanent collection of artworks representative of the Madras Movement. While the initial design was made by a visiting Dutch couple, the design for the art centre was made by architects Sheila Sri Prakash of Shilpa Architects and M. V. Devan, as project gathered momentum help came in from various artists and corporates alike. Finally after three and half years of construction the building was, and thus started a long search for works that exemplified the Madras Movement, which flourished between the early 50s and the 80s. Eventually about 60 per cent of the works were donated by senior artists and the rest were given on extended loan by art collectors around the country.

The 'Cholamandal Centre for Contemporary Art' was opened at the village on Feb 1, 2009; it has a 'Museum of the Madras Movement', which display works of all prominent artist of the 'Madras Movement' apart from that of Paniker, including M. Senathipathi, Late A.P. Santhanaraj, P.S. Nandhan, S.G. Vasudev, K.V. Haridasan, Thotta Tharani, Sculptor S. Nandagopal. Apart from the museum and a gallery for Cholamadal artists, the centre has two commercial galleries, 'Labernum' and 'Indigo', that can be rented free of commission charge, an art book store, and a craft shop. Outside it is surrounded by tree-shaded sands which sport an international sculpture garden, displaying sculptures made by visiting artists from across India and the world through the decades