Iranna GR was born in 1970, and has painted professionally for 10 years. His studentship took place amid great upheaval in the Indian class system and a fierce debate about Indian art. The State ceased to control the economy thus opening the country up to private business. Although this was generally positive it also had the effect of generating religious and traditionalist friction. Between 1999 and 2000 Iranna acted as artist-in-residence at Wimbledon School of Art, London. His art is thought to be a stylistic challenge to post-modernism, using instead the representative, idealistic and modernist language of contemporary Indian painting. He has won several awards, held a series of one-man shows and participated in exhibitions in Amsterdam and Chicago. This is a meditation on the life and work of the artist. Ranjit Hoskote emphasises the spirituality of the artist's work and the importance of his Guru. Frequently, Iranna depicts a solitary figure in an unreal landscape, and this has b