Bhaskaran born in 1942 grew up in a family of artists in Chennai. His biggest inspiration as a child was his maternal uncle, Namashivayam Pillai who had a business of painting film banners in the 1930s. Bhaskaran is also trained in the art of painting frescos at the Bhanasthali Vidyapeeth in Rajasthan.
The painter and his paintings share the same quality- a certain ruggedness ,pleasant rakishness and and an unusual dynamism. The similarity between Bhaskaran and his paintings hits you in the face at once. He was one of the protagonists of the Modern Indian art movement, a role that he has traversed with great skill and understanding. He argued against the idea that Indian art had to be that, that it had to contain ideas and motifs from the histories of Indian art production. Bhaskaran’s work becomes particularly interesting when taken in the Indian context. Whilst he denied the need to be Indian in a contemporary art context at the same time he did not go out of his way to remove or destroy those motifs that are immediately identified as Indian. He cleverly questions this dynamic through his chosen imagery.
In their deep browns and grey-blacks, there is a tribal character to the paintings of Bhaskaran. In the way the faces and other elements are delineated, there is a certain directness.
The artist has participated in 60 exhibitions in India, The UK and Netherlands. R.B.Bhaskaran lives and works out of Chennai.