The Indian Institute of Cartoonists, had organised an exhibition of RKL's unpublished doodles between 15th Oct to 29th of Oct 2016 (Bangalore).
Me being a big fan of R.K,Laxman like so many of you, visiting the exhibition gallery was on my 'to do list'. On 23rd of Oct we (me along with my son & wife) went to IIC, but it was hard luck for us :( because the gallery is closed on all Sundays. (lessons learned, it is better to enquire/check online before stepping out). With Diwali coming up in a day & tomorrow being the last day of the exhibition I didn't wanted to take any chances of keeping the visit on the last day. So this evening (28th Oct), I went to IIC to catch a glimpse of RKL's unpublished doodles exhibit.
May be there are many, who might have missed out on the exhibition due to various reasons. Hence for the benefit of all RKL's fan, I thought of sharing all the pics of RKL's doodles put up in the exhibition.
Unfortunately the pics I took are not good in quality (taken from my cell phone camera, reflection on the photo-frame glass from the spot lights). Nonetheless, I think it is still worth to see RKL's unpublished doodles & hence sharing them with all of you, through this blogpost.
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| R.K.Laxman & famous creation Common Man |
I am copying the brief introductory note, from the pamphlet distributed at Indian Cartoon Gallery:
The Story Behind The Doodles
The legendary cartoonist Mr. R.K.Laxman used to Doodle constantly whenever he came to Mysore, his birth place on holidays. In December 1975 Mr. R.K.Srinivasan, Laxman's elder brother, who was in Delhi brought a big scrap book & made Laxman create more Doodles.
The process of Doodling started with the chat & conversation of the day on 15th of Dec 1975. Totally 97 meaningful Doodles were created for 16 years till 5th of Oct 1991. Hundreds of people have seen these Doodles at their home. Some have called them meaningless & nonsense. Some really felt that they have deep philosophical & artistic significance. The orginal Doodles are now with Mr. R.SKrisnaswamy, Bangalore, son of Mr. R.K. Srinivasan. All the 97 Doodles are displayed here.
Now, finally the pics of RKL's unpublished doodles:
"My sketch pen is not a sword, it is my friend". - R.K.Laxman