Farce, wit and irony dot every work of RK Laxman who was in the city to inaugurate an exhibition



This weekend the Indian Cartoon Gallery is exhibiting RK Laxman’s works for public viewing. The event was flagged off by Laxman himself who came all the way from Pune especially for this inaugural. The exhibition, held in collaboration with the Times of India, pays tribute to Laxman’s long body of work over more than five decades. 



RK Laxman was born into a Tamil family in Mysore. From the very beginning, the young Laxman was interested in doodling and giving a funny angle to every picture he came across. Interestingly, this cartoon great was refused a place at the JJ School of Art after which he pursued his studies at the Maharaja College in Mysore. A life changing moment for Laxman was meeting Walter Langhammer, the then art director of the Times of India. Laxman went on to illustrate his elder brother RK Narayan’s novel, the famous ‘Malgudi Days’ What ensued was a glorious 54 year career that continues even today as his cartoons appear in newspapers and magazines, far and wide.  

“Our intention at the Indian Cartoon Gallery was to show our respect to Laxman for his great body of work. That is also why we thought of making the opening more eventful by making the man himself inaugurate the event”, said V. Narendra from the Indian Cartoon Gallery. Also present at the inauguration were noted Bangalore based cartoonists like Gujarappa, Pandu Ranga Rao, Vikas Gupta, Padmanabhan, Gopal, KR Swamy and Prem Kumar. Many budding cartoonists had also made it to the exhibition.