Kalpathi Ganpathi Subramanyan was born in 1924 in a village in north Kerala, India. Subramanyan was one of the leading artists who was a part of India's post-independence search for identity through art. He completed his Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the Presidency College in Chennai. While studying economics Subramanyan got involved in the freedom struggle. He was imprisoned and debarred from government colleges. The turning point of his life came when he joined Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan and graduated in 1948, under mentors such as Benode Behari Mukherjee, Nandalal Bose and Ramkinkar Baij. In 1951 he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts in M.S. University in Baroda. He received a scholarship and went to study briefly in London at the Slade School of Art under the British Council in 1956. In 1966, Subramanyan travelled to New York as a Rockefeller Fellow where he painted on smaller canvases due to shortage of space that led him to experiment with diptychs and triptychs. In 1980, Subramanyan went back to Santiniketan to teach painting at Kala Bhavan. He continued to teach there till he retired in 1989 after which he was made a professor of Visva Bharati University.
Subramanyan's works combine elements such as art principles of European Modernism and folk expression. A versatile artist, Subramanyan is known as a painter, muralist, sculptor, printmaker, set designer and toy maker. He enjoyed painting women, children, objects and animals before a period of exclusively painting still-lives in the sixties. His paintings became a study of objects as forms, with bright colours and abstract shapes until the shift to the terrace series in the seventies. Subramanyan's prominent black lines recall the works of Pablo Picasso and F. N. Souza. Known for the sensuality of his imagery and figures, the nightly backdrops and the reflective faces, Subramanyan's paintings uncover a cubist influence. Drawing upon the rich resources of myth, memory and tradition, Subramanyan tempers romanticism with wit and eroticism. His writings have formed a foundation for the study of contemporary Indian art.
In a career spanning nearly seven decades, K G Subramanyan's works have been exhibited in over fifty solo shows, including an extensive 2015-2016 exhibition by the Seagull Foundation for the Arts in collaboration with the Jehangir Art Gallery- Mumbai, and the Harrington Street Arts Centre- Kolkata. He has received numerous high ranking awards for his achievements such as the Medallion of Honorable Mention, Biennale in Brazil, the Kalidas Samman, National Award by the Lalit Kala Academy, Abanindra Puraskar and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy of Fine Arts. Subramanyan has also been awarded the exceptionally prestigious Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibhushan from the Government of India for his contribution to Indian art.
Subramanyan resided in Baroda with his daughter towards the later days of his life. The artist passed away in June 2016 at the age of 92.