Surya Prakash, a well-known painter from Hyderabad, who was one of the first artists to put the city on the national map, passed away today following a heart attack. He was 78.

The best places where his creative paintings stand out in Hyderabad are the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). He has done nearly 60 solo exhibitions and over a century of groups shows, displaying the breadth and depth of his work.

Blossoming years

Prakash’s journey began in a small garage in the city, where he shared space and ideas with Laxma Goud and Dakoji Devaraj in the early 1960s. A stint with the renowned painter Ram Kumar in New Delhi gave him the needed push. Beginning with a short stint in the Information & Public Relations department of the united Andhra Pradesh doing small exhibitions with the support of Narendra Luther, the Director and noted historian of Hyderabad, Prakash blossomed into a painter of international repute, taking risks and experimenting with ideas in a career spanning over half a century.

His works were mainly in oils and acrylic, and he was inspired by French impressionists. Prakash’s paintings reflect the power of his expression through abstracts and the wild and varied landscapes, which come alive with his beautiful choice of colours.

Prakash always kept abreast of the change and technology impact on art and even did digital prints in recent years. He was appointed ‘Artist in Residence’ at the CCMB, a national research laboratory, thanks to the founder-Director, PM Bhargava.

Prakash was involved right through the formative years of the lab, which boasts of a full-fledged art gallery, big exhibitions and also an unfinished mural by MF Husain. Prakash also won the patronage of GN Rao, noted opthalmologist and founder of the LVPEI, who gave him space to create a lab-cum-gallery, which the painter utilised for three decades.

For the painting world of Hyderabad, he was a senior and guiding figure, holding many workshops and exhibitions to encourage talent. Hailing from Madhira in Khammam, the soft-spoken Prakash had a stamp of class on the choice of colour scheme. He struggled hard for a few decades to find recognition, taking his works to famed galleries in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

Prakash was a diploma holder from the Jawaharlal Nehru College of Fine Arts & Architecture. His works are also to be found in museums across the globe. He is survived by his wife and a daughter.

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