The Beginning
Born to Sri Umapathy & Smt Gnanambal in 1924, Maniam aka Subramaniam grew to be a famed artist among Tamil population, well known for his illustrations that featured in Kalki’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ in 1950.
He had his initiation into the world of art through his paternal uncle Lingayyah. As a young child, he watched his uncle draw everyday scenes of the busy streets in Mylapore along with his friend S Rajam. This had a great influence in his career. Little did this illustrious artist know what his journey would be.
The Alchemy
At the right age, naturally the path took him to The School of Arts, Chennai (the present Govt. College of Arts). Training under Principal Roy Choudhury, Maniam exhibited a promising future. While still a student, in 1942, he was introduced to Shri Kalki R Krishnamoorthy as a budding artist looking for opportunities.
When Kalki identified the potential of this young artist, he offered him to join his Magazine ‘Kalki’ as a full-time illustrator. Maniam didn’t expect this response and shared his willingness to complete his Diploma. Keen to have such a natural talent, Shri Kalki candidly quizzed whether he or his diploma is going to draw or paint. After much self-contemplation, Maniam dropped out of his formal studies and joined Kalki as a full-time illustrator. In the hindsight of that moment, Maniam often talked about his two great gurus – Principal Roy Chowdry and Shri Kalki R Krishnamurthy.
The Germination
Like a seed planted in rich soil, Maniam’s development flourished while working for ‘Kalki’ magazine. While featured on a weekly journal, the regular feedback from public provided the required critique to progress and push the boundaries as an illustrator.
In 1944, Shri Kalki R Krishnamurthy, Ellis R Dungan (director of movie ‘Meera’), Nagaraja Rao (Photographer) and few others went to Ajanta and Ellora. Maniam as a young artist of the magazine, had the great opportunity to travel along with them to experience the location related to the story of Sivakamiyin Sabatham. This first visit to Ajanta and Ellora opened an artistic portal for Maniam. He got lost in the beauty of the Ajanta murals so much so he had to extend his stay longer to be able to capture the essence of it. He returned to Chennai as an artist with a new found wisdom. His studies and reflections from this experience cooked slowly in his mind for the next 7 years of his life. When Ponniyin Selvan was published in 1950, Maniam emerged as a full-fledged illustrator in his own right.
The Reign
From this time onwards, Maniam explored various means to express his unique sense of aesthetics, be it for the design value, re-imagining the past through art direction (Kalki’s Parthiban Kanavu movie, 1957) and paintings. So much so, he handled every illustration as a large painting composition with a lot to communicate symbolically. Obsessed with a quest for details and perfection, he would painstakingly create large size artworks despite the final production was in weekly magazines. He travelled to remote sites in search of history and inspiration along with his wife Smt Saraswathy who supported him as an assistant, sometimes even posing as a model and by providing good food which she prepared with available limited resources on site.
Until the very end of his short lifetime, Maniam had this unquenchable thirst to push the boundaries as an artist. Finally, in 1968 he had to pass the baton to his only son Loganathan when his physical body couldn’t cope anymore. In his last breath, his love and passion for creating artworks silently transferred to his son’s hands.
The legacy
This energy accepted by his son at that moment synthesised and grew through the next decade transforming Loganathan to Maniam Selven (Son of Maniam in short Ma Se). Whilst he started working as a budding artist from 1967, the period after his father’s passing in ‘68 was the hardest to overcome. He continued to illustrate for weekly magazines / journals like Kalki, Kumudam, Kalaimagal, Amuthasurabhi, Vikatan, Kathir, etc, while he pursued his Commercial Arts course in Govt College of Arts, Chennai.
By the time he graduated as a gold medallist in 1973, Ma Se already had a career as a freelance illustrator but joined as Visualiser and Illustrator at a leading advertising agency. After a year in ‘74, realising that his true calling was in the field of illustration, he quit his job at the agency and started freelancing as a full-time illustrator. Reflecting on this, Ma Se feels the period from 1968 to 1975 was a time of conscious career building.
The Seeker
Ma Se’s resilience to make a name for himself made him take various challenges. He was determined to expand his techniques to more than one particular style of work. He started choosing new mediums and mixing those to match the theme he was working on. From 1976 with the developments in the process of printing & graphics, he efficiently introduced the magazine readers to a fresh new visual imagery. For this Ma Se is forever grateful to Anantha Vikatan magazine for giving him the freedom and the empowerment to explore. He often mentions, like how his father had Kalki, he got Vikatan as a platform from 1977 till date.
His works with various mediums from watercolours, collage, dry pastel, mixed media to airbrush techniques stood out due to the approach from a complete page layout’s perspective. The understanding of which came from his commercial arts background and numerous inspirations from his father’s illustrations. His never ending search to experiment with various art materials didn’t stop just there. He plunged himself into digital mediums adopting few computer design software in 1997. For a freelance illustrator, this was as an expensive ordeal back then. However, his keenness to be updated with the latest tools and technology of the trade, made him go for it.
Today, at the age of 70, Ma Se juggles various digital tools to complement his already strong hand drawn illustrations. With the belief of representing his father through his works and a continuous quest to learn, Ma Se’s artistic journey continues to cross new milestones.