Thangaraj was born in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) in 1957. At the age of eighteen, he left the comforts of his home to join the Anak Alam (Child of Nature) Group. He basically contributed to Malaysian Art History by being the first ethnic Indian to join this society. He has stayed as an active member since it’s establishment in 1974.
The group was earlier referred to as the Angkatan Pelukis Semenanjung or Peninsula Artist Group. It was dominated by the realist artist Hoessain Enas,.and being based on a naturalistic school of thought, championed realistic renditions .The group consisted of budding artists including the renowned Abdul Latiff Mohidin, Mustaffa Haji Ibrahim, Abdul Ghaffar Ibrahim, Khalil Ibrahim and Siti Zainon Ismail. The society was established with the primary aim of preserving the cultural diversity of Malaysian art and conserving the environment. Group members had a strong aversion to man’s senseless ravaging of nature and believed in a shared vision in which nature and man coexisted in harmony.
Raj’s deep interest in the arts is centred not only in his favourite genre - abstract impressionist painting, but in the performing arts as well. This could be observed from his participation in the Malay theatre scene. He has been a keen participant in puppet theatre, comedies, theatrical drama and plays. Many of the performances were held at the Experimental Theatre at University Malaya and the City hall theaterette (Panggung Bandaraya) in Kuala Lumpur.
The artist has also acted as a judge for a wide variety of art competitions. In his role as a social activist, he has voiced his opinion on various educational issues. As recently as June 2004, he verbalized his support for the government’s meritocratic policy on university admissions ‘Malay Mail article, June 2004).
Raj is a qualified lifeguard and diver, a member of the Kennel Association of Malaysia (he loves animals) and a member of the Art Circle- a private art club.
HIS PAINTINGS AND PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY
A perusal of Raj’s lengthy resume with achievements in such diverse fields as abstract art, batik painting, mask making, puppet theatre, drama etc. would lead one to assume
that he is an individual deeply interested in the arts and rather unconcerned with monetary gain. His abiding attraction to this field encompasses a wide variety of art forms including sculpture, stone painting and lithography.
Raj’s work has received national media attention and continues to be favored by galleries nationwide. Each art piece that he has produced is unique because they are visually inspiring, vibrant in colour and strong in composition.
He teaches his prize - winning .techniques to students and encourages their exposure to colour and composition to produce exciting still-life, landscapes, figurative and flower painting. Though excellent
at real life work, Raj himself concentrates on abstracts because of his own life experiences.
at real life work, Raj himself concentrates on abstracts because of his own life experiences.
His early flurry of creativity include the ‘Anak Alam’ or ‘Child of Nature’ series done in his twenties. It depicts a primordial era prior to the dawn of conscious thought. In a stage before the understanding of human perception and the self in terms of food and the reproductive impulse, the biological urges of men , according to Raj were pure. He drew abstract forms of the human reproductive organs using his classic web of lines, dots and tonal shades of black and white. The organs in his artwork were pure and devoid of negative connotations because they depicted a time before the awakening of the human mind to concepts such as good and evil, better or worse, male or female etc. In Raj’s theory of human perception all aspects of human nature are pure unless individuals see it as otherwise. In his paradigm, human thought cannot exist without the conscious understanding of the dichotomous concept of choice- the ability to discriminate between two major differing forms of morality (good and bad), of religion (to believe or not to), of sex (male or female) etcetera. In his theory of dualism, the choice even extends to the physical world. Individuals need to discriminate between colours, sizes and shapes to exist and interact meaningfully with everything in this world. Following the artist’s line of thought, all aspects of human nature are essentially pure unless we perceive it to be otherwise.
In 1984 a turning point occurred when the artist experienced a significant encounter with the divine. In a near tragic accident at a waterfall in Templer’s Park he slipped, fell and in a near death encounter, was trapped below the water surface. He experienced a soundless world where his conscious soul dwelled in unity with the earth, rocks and sky. He was a part of everything and everything was a part of him .The episode changed his life dramatically; for the first time he saw himself, the universe and all people in it as one. From this moment on, Raj has been attempting to investigate the metaphysical aspects of life through his art. His recent creations have become more
abstract, atomic and minute in detail. His work of the 1990’s therefore, takes on a more vibrant and often bewildering variety of colours. ‘Life I’, ‘Life II’, ‘The Universal Power’
and ‘Footprints in the Sky” are all about the dawn of conscious thought. Humanity
understands the concept of discrimination and choice. There are attempts to label the reproductive act as good or evil, there are struggles for power (to control or not to) and all sorts of two-way or dual-choice decisions to be made.
and ‘Footprints in the Sky” are all about the dawn of conscious thought. Humanity
understands the concept of discrimination and choice. There are attempts to label the reproductive act as good or evil, there are struggles for power (to control or not to) and all sorts of two-way or dual-choice decisions to be made.
The more recent works continue to echo this theme of dualism. His elephant painting stands as a symbol of religious divide - between mankind’s present life on earth and the hereafter. The claw-like biological piece ‘Evolution’ points to a temporal difference – the growth of present man into a super entity in the future.
His artwork of 2004 is a line series again emphasizing further aspects of Raj’s theory of dualism. He attempts to show that his idea can be universally applied to explain philosophical and social phenomenon. In this particular bifurcation a line serves two functions – to unify and to divide. It could represent the shortest distance between two points, the umbilical chord joining mother and child, and the jagged streaks of lightning which join heaven and earth. The line also serves as a demarcation between physical and metaphysical space. It divides earth and sky, the known and the unknown , and even the present and the hereafter. It is this dual aspect of the linear form that the artist wishes to emphasize in his line series ‘The Gordion Knot’. ‘Line I’. ’Line II’ and ‘Line III’ are all works depicting wavy lines moving in various directions. They demarcate space as well as unite. The works draw from parallels within the human condition. Mankind undergoes similar dualistic processes – that of unity and disunity, order and chaos, subatomic division and universal wholeness. The ‘Gordion Knot’ series also symbolizes that man must cut free from his individualistic pursuits and focus on his common spiritual and physical connection with the rest of humanity.
The artist’s work at present time has become rather metaphysical in nature. It is not a splash and pour kind of abstraction but consists of rather detailed work with harmony in tonal values and design. Basically the artist does not attempt to follow any acknowledged lines of thought but is unique in both his ideas and their conception.
RESUME
Address: No.3, Jln 22/38, Section 22, Petaling Jaya, 46300, Selangor.
Date of Birth: 3.9.1957
Contact No: 012-2316557
Education: Artistic skills- self taught.
Awards: 1. He was a Major Award Winner for the Malaysian Young
Contemporaries competition in 1984. The title of his painting was ‘Children of Nature’. The painting was a detailed pen and
ink abstract in black and white.
2. The artist has also won the First Prize for the illustration of
Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson. The award was
Presented by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (The National Embassy. The artwork done in ink and watercolor was
entitled ‘The Ugly Duckling’.
3. The artist was the winner of the consolation prize for the Book
Illustration Award by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka on 15th.
Jan. 1983. The prize winning illustration was for the book ‘Tik,
Ketik, Ketik ‘ by Jamiah Abu Bakar.4. He obtained first prize in the National Book Development
Council Competition (Majlis Kemajuan Buku Kebangsaan)
for the best illustrated children’s book entitled ‘Tiki, Tiko
Tiku’ (The Three Rats).