Karunakaran’s paintings to be auctioned

Thursday, 22 December 2011: Two paintings drawn by late Congress veteran and former chief minister K Karunakaran during his college days will be auctioned by the Kerala Lalit Kala Academy.
The two surviving works of the veteran leader ‘life studies’ painted by him in early 1940s as an art student in Thrissur, will be auctioned tomorrow.
Karunakaran gave up the pursuit of an artistic career to join the freedom struggle.
According to Academy sources, the paintings were done in Winson and Newton oil colour on art paper of approximately A-3 size. Both the works are human portraits and one of them modelled on a rickshaw puller in Thrissur town those days.
Both the works were handed over to the Academy by a fan of Karunakaran years ago from his personal collection.
Born in Kannur, Karunakaran came to Thrissur to learn drawing and painting at an early age.
The auction will be held in Taj Hotel in the city. An exhibition of cartoons and caricatures on Karunakaran drawn by leading cartoonists in the country has also been organised as part of the event, coinciding with the first death anniversary of the veteran leader.