I record with a sense of loss the passing away of Lakshmi Venkatraman, freelance journalist in Art & Carnatic music and Art curator.

It was at Gallery Sri Parvati where I met her first in 2005. Since we have love for art & music common in both of us, our journey started right from that moment. She has been a great inspiration and has encouraged me as an artist and made me have an art show there at her gallery in 2015.

Lakshmi hailed from the well-known family of Justice P. R. Sundaram Iyer (Madras High Court). Lakshmi’s father built the art deco house, where she was running Gallery Sri Parvati, through which she promoted a huge number of senior and upcoming talents.

Lakshmi has been quite close to many veterans in both the fields of art and music. Being a freelancer, she has penned about many artists, their works and careers. She has curated many art shows and has been a big name in the Indian art world. She has travelled extensively in both India and abroad for observing renaissance art. She has a wide knowledge which attracted me close to her. I have been privileged to travel with her many times for curating art. Together, we have made several documentaries on artists and musicians such as B. Krishnamoorthy, Ramesh Vendhanbatla, to name a few. With her valuable guidance, I conducted art workshops at her gallery through which we trained many budding artists.

She founded the Kalpakalakshmi Charitable Trust with the main objective of promoting Art, Music, Environment and Education. Being one of the trustees, I shall strive to fulfill her objectives. Together we started this online magazine, laksquare.com, which will continue to carry on her vision of featuring traditional values and lifestyle.

Her demise is a great loss to the world of Art and Carnatic music.

- Lakshu -

A documentary from our collection: