Why is Tom Vattakuzhi Art, Loneliness, and Why His Painting

The 58 -year -old Tom Vattakuzhi has been painting since the late 1980s. Some can miss him Gandhi’s deathWhich gained immense fame for the realistic depiction of Mahatma Gandhi’s death. This Kerala State Budget was depicted on the cover of 2020-21 and became the most photographed in India Art Fair 2023.

Located in his hometown Muwattupuzha in Kerala, the bright canvas of Vattakuzhi is widely displayed all over India and abroad. Nevertheless, it took more than three decades for the first single exhibition of this much awaited artist to be held in the country. Shadow of absenceFamous art historian R. Curateed by Shiv Kumar and organized by the Contemporary Indian Arts Institute, opened in Kolkata in this July and was displayed at the promise art gallery in New Delhi, New Delhi by 13 September. Excerpts from a conversation with the artist:

Question: What time did you take to organize a single exhibition in India?

A: I was never ambitious about organizing a single exhibition of my tasks. Performing is not my ultimate goal; It is not why I paint. For me, art is a type of self-exploration. My teachers of Santinicate were great artists like Somnath Hore and KG Subramanian, who did not create art only to perform.

Making paintings is a process of self-incense. I paint to find my inner mooring, or when I know a situation or emotion cannot be expressed in words. I am happy about this exhibition, but it is not what inspires me to paint.

Question: Your canvas often features desolate, forelock individuals. Who are they, and why are they so alone?

A: I think I have a little bit in every figure you see in my pictures. Or so I was recently told by an audience in Kolkata. They are born of my imagination. They are not people I personally know or celebrated in a period of time.

Melancholia’s spirit is the highest rule in my works because it is my constant companion. I was the only child who found refuge in Malayalam film songs. Even in my adolescence, I found the world around me rather than sad.

Young girl with jars; Tom Vattakuzhi

You will find regular people in my pictures. Nothing is extraordinary or brave about them. I am often asked about the use of light in my work, and I have thought a lot about it. I have concluded that when you are in darkness, you become very conscious of light. You yearn for this. Perhaps my characters are the same.

Question: I have heard people saying that your pictures are very reliable because they are set in domestic places and roam around everyday events in the family or home. Are you trying to tell stories through pictures?

A: The house is a continuous setting for my pictures. I think our truth finds ourselves the best at home. Outside, we wear masks. But I am not a storyteller, and there is no clear story in my pictures. If you want, you can call them visual stories. I am worried about the internalism of my characters and try to highlight their internal landscapes. My painting can create a feeling, a mood.

After saying this, I should make it clear that I am very interested in all forms, interested in all forms of art, cinema, philosophy – and learn from them. They all come out of life. But painting is a different creative expression. It is not literature, or there is also an option for it. I am not making a statement through my pictures. My environment and contemporary events can affect what I paint, but I am not portraying any specific event. My painting is not a placard.

birthday; Tom Vattakuzhi

Question: How should people see your work?

A: I do not want to determine how people should look at my work, but I want to say that it is not just painted on the surface. This is an excitement to think. It develops in the audience’s mind. A painting should produce some resonance. You should feel through your experiences of life and answer it.

Question: We often talk about “death of painting”. Do you consider it as a real danger?

A: Painting can never die. It will continue to develop, and its capacity is endless.

Interviewers write about art and culture. He teaches at Flame University, Pune.