From the earliest cave paintings to the most experimental canvases of our time, the human body has remained art’s most vital subject. Never only an anatomical study, a vessel of memory, myth, and meaning. Grammar of Bodies extends this lineage by placing two distinct voices side by side: C.N Karunakaran, a modernist whose figuration drew deeply from Kerala mural traditions and Indian classical aesthetics, and Latheesh Lakshman, a contemporary artist with a distinctive style, whose distilled, iconographic forms reframe the body in bold contours and chromatic spaces.

Karunakaran’s practice, forged during a time when Indian modernism was defining itself, merged tradition with reinvention. His archetypal women, rendered with flowing lines, ornamental detail, and an arresting sense of grace, situate him alongside contemporaries like M.F. Husain in shaping the language of Indian modernism. In Karunakaran’s works, ornamentation becomes language, colour becomes musical, and the body becomes a site of transcendence. His canvases evoke both the frontality of murals and the poise of Chola bronzes.

Lakshman, who is also an internationally acclaimed visual designer, approaches figuration with a bold, minimalistic style, a reflection on the times we inhabit. His visual language distills the human form into graphic silhouettes and vivid fields of colour. Deceptively simple meditations on society, human interactions, and identity, balancing critical depth with beauty and precision – a sensibility perhaps rooted in his lineage of goldsmiths.

Where Karunakaran’s figures are suffused with a lyrical stillness, Lakshman’s works vibrate with immediacy. Together, they inhabit a shared terrain: the human form as both subject and language, a ground where two generations meet and expression endures.