Skip to main content
Krishna Reddy’s prints epitomize a global exchange of ideas, knowledge, and techniques held at printmaker Stanley William Hayter’s workshop ‘Atelier 17’ in Paris. Closely collaborating with Hayter and other renowned printmakers during the 1950s and 60s, Reddy was formative in developing viscosity printing, also known as simultaneous color printing. These collaborations reflect the sense of community built amongst printmakers who traveled from across the world to work and learn at the heart of cosmopolitan Paris. On Hayter and Rolf Nesch’s workshop in Oslo, Reddy wrote in his book Intaglio Simultaneous Color Printmaking, “They imbued the workshop with the spirit of innovation…these studios flourished as international centers for younger artists.” Atelier 17 presented a dynamic and intimate space for invention where global artists interacted and worked together. Also highly regarded as a sculptor, Reddy’s art moves beyond materiality. His approach towards metal plates is much like sculpting, acknowledging the plate as a work of art itself. In Germination, Reddy’s repetitive and highly textured abstract forms draw from the organic and natural world. The amoebic imagery is perhaps a nod to his studies in botany and biology at Santiniketan.
Image Not Available
for Krishna Reddy
Krishna Reddy
India, 1925 - 2018
Place of BirthChittoor, Andhra Pradesh, India, Asia
Place of DeathNew York, New York, United States, North America
BiographyFrom 1976 until his recent passing, Krishna Reddy had lived in New York – working and teaching at NYU. Prior to coming to NY, Reddy had studied at Santiniketan from 1942-47 under Nandalal Bose. In 1949, he traveled to Europe to continue his education first at the Slade School of Art in London to study under Henry Moore, and then in Paris at the Academie Grande Chaumiere to work with famed sculptor Ossip Zadkine, and in Milan with Marino Marini. It was Zadkine who introduced Reddy to Stanley William Hayter and his graphic arts workshop ‘Atelier 17’ where Reddy practiced printmaking and later became its co-director from 1964-1976. All of Reddy’s prints in the BMA permanent collection are printed using the viscosity technique, also known as simultaneous color printing, which he co-developed with Hayter, Kaiko Moti, and other Atelier 17 printmakers. The viscosity technique allowed Reddy to apply multiple colors with varied viscosities on the same plate using linseed oil to prevent the colors from mixing. This print from The Great Clown series (1975-1982) depicts concentric circles of a circus within which faces of clowns emerge, their bodies performing on a trapeze. Reddy’s prints are characterized by abstract and hypnotic visuals.Krishna Reddy’s prints epitomize a global exchange of ideas, knowledge, and techniques held at printmaker Stanley William Hayter’s workshop ‘Atelier 17’ in Paris. Closely collaborating with Hayter and other renowned printmakers during the 1950s and 60s, Reddy was formative in developing viscosity printing, also known as simultaneous color printing. These collaborations reflect the sense of community built amongst printmakers who traveled from across the world to work and learn at the heart of cosmopolitan Paris. On Hayter and Rolf Nesch’s workshop in Oslo, Reddy wrote in his book Intaglio Simultaneous Color Printmaking, “They imbued the workshop with the spirit of innovation…these studios flourished as international centers for younger artists.” Atelier 17 presented a dynamic and intimate space for invention where global artists interacted and worked together. Also highly regarded as a sculptor, Reddy’s art moves beyond materiality. His approach towards metal plates is much like sculpting, acknowledging the plate as a work of art itself. In Germination, Reddy’s repetitive and highly textured abstract forms draw from the organic and natural world. The amoebic imagery is perhaps a nod to his studies in botany and biology at Santiniketan.
United States, born Russia, 1905 - 1979
