Badri Narayan

Born on 22 July 1929 in Secunderabad, Badri Narayan was a self-taught painter, writer, storyteller, and art teacher. Beginning his career in the late 1940s with ceramic tiles and mosaics, he later worked primarily in ink, pastel, and watercolour. His distinctive visual language drew from medieval woodcuts, Byzantine portraiture, Ajanta murals, and Pahari miniatures. Working between the literary and visual, Narayan used narrative as a central element, drawing extensively from Indic myths and folklore. His stylised compositions often featured recurring symbols and simple outlines. From his first exhibition in 1949, he participated in over fifty national and international shows. He was also a prolific writer and illustrator and received the Padma Shri in 1987 and Maharashtra Gaurav Puruskar in 1990. He passed away in Bengaluru in 2013.