Ravi Varma foundation releases two new works

Manu Pillai’s book looks at painter’s unexplored phase with portraits

Coinciding with the 172th birth anniversary, The Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation in Bengaluru has released a book by historian Manu S Pillai on the painter from Kerala, as well as a film by Vikas Urs.

The Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation has worked for the past five years to shed greater light on the work of the celebrated painter.

Pillai’s limited edition book, which has been titled ‘The World of Raja Ravi Varma: Princes and Patrons’, is a fresh look at the works of Ravi Varma. While Varma’s puranic works have been explored in great detail, Pillai chooses to explore the portraits done by the painter that had initially made him famous, and sheds light on a previously unexplored aspect of his life.

Urs’ documentary film explores the paintings and the worlds that Ravi Varma travelled in.

Ahead of the release of the projects, a webinar was hosted by Gitanjali Maini, the CEO of The Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation, where Pillai and Urs discussed the life and work of Varma.

Those who were part of the webinar were given a peek into important pictorial and textual information that sheds light on Raja Ravi Varma’s milieu.

One of the highlights of the webinar was the conversation between Pillai and Robin Jeffrey, the writer of the ‘The Decline of Nair dominance’.