C. Ravi Shankar Patnaik, a faculty member in the Department of Fine Arts at Andhra University, died of cardiac arrest Thursday evening. He is survived by his wife, son, and daughter.
Ravi Shankar Patnaik had been a department head in the past. Many of the statues on the AU campus were made by him. He was one of the few well-known sculptors in the country whose works have been exhibited in various states.
Ravi Shankar Patnaik was born in August 1961 and had a BA (Fine Arts) with sculpture from the MS University in Baroda in 1982 and a Masters from the same university in 1984 as well as a preliminary course in sculpture from the School of Fine Arts of the National Technical University in Athens, Greece.
He was selected for the Greek Government Scholarship in 1984-85 but was unable to take it since he was appointed professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Andhra University in 1985.
From 1993-96 to 2007-11 he was a member of the AU study committee, head of the visual arts department. He was an external auditor for BFA and MFA at BHU in Varanasi, CKP Bengaluru, Jaipur University and the Government Art College in Trivandrum for five years.
He ran several art warehouses and organized exhibitions. He had received the ‘Prasamsa Patram’ from the Chief Minister of AP in 1986 and the Ugadi Puraskar in Madras in 1996.
The director of the AU Colleges for Art and Commerce, Fr. Rajendra Prasad, approved the death of Ravi Shankar Patnaik and expressed his condolences to the bereaved. He described death as a loss to the university and the world of fine arts.
Ravi Shankar Patnaik’s father CSN Patnaik is also a well-known artist.
AU Vice Chancellor PVGD Prasad Reddy, Chancellor V. Krishna Mohan and Rector K. Samatha approved the death and expressed their condolences to the bereaved.