The Pastoral Painter in His Element

Thota Vaikuntam's ongoing exhibition in Delhi shows subtle changes in the colour scheme, even as the larger motif remains the same

- By MEDHA DUTTA YADAV

The sensibility of an artist and the sensuality of the pastoral has historical and political nuances. Take Jamini Roy for example, the ambassador of India's simplicity in a simpler age. The 19th century artist Jean-François Millet's peasant metaphors and contextual grammar influenced later masters like Van Gogh and Gauguin.

Rural imagery in Indian art is a given, considering the timelessness of the Indian idyll. Though late to recognition and celebrity status, Thota Vaikuntam is a reticent man. As if to escape the crowd of savants and journalists crowding Delhi's Art Alive Gallery, the diminutive artist has retired behind a shut door. He is dressed in the tones of his palette - a taupe coloured vest and a mild amber coloured shirt.

Outside a crowd mills around a black and white painting of a mother and child. "It is one of my earlier works, which has hardly been shown," Done in the early 1970s, it reflects his close relationship with his mother. It also begs the question whether Telangana itself is his Oedipal mountainhead. His women are resplendent in red, saffron, green with sideways glances that search beyond the frames in stillness, as if saying, "No, this is not all there is about us."