T VAIKUNTAM
Senior artist, T Vaikuntam paints colourful and elaborately dressed Telangana men and seductive women. Recipient of Bharat Bhavan Biennale Award (Bhopal), National Award (Government of India) and the State Award (Telangana) for his contribution to the art industry, Vaikuntam has numerous stories to share.
Talking about the idea behind the paintings, he says, “Line plays a prominent role in my work. In Indian paintings, anywhere you go or whatever you see, either murals, miniatures, etc, a line is very important. Details are
important and express many things. For example, a movement of the hand through the lines expresses a lot. Thus, I have an interest in this subject. Hence, I have selected a subject like a line and have been using it for a long time,” adding, “I was born in the village. I have selected the rural life as I know everything about it. I am well versed with the culture, the way they live, their behaviour and mannerisms and everything they do. Hence, through my work I want to represent my village on a bigger canvas.” Vaikuntam says that his initial days did not involve any thoughts about money, it was pur art. “When I started, it was very funny and different. We never thought about money or anything else, but just painting. We only thought and discussed about charcoal, line, drawing, composition, etc. I may not have had colours to paint, but I had charcoal and with limited means, you can’t do everything. So, I never stopped creating works. But later, money came,” he adds. A lose look at his works and you’ll realise that Vaikuntam loves his village and shows it through art. “The subject of my village was very dear to my heart. After I completed my studies I tried many subjects in my artwork. For a year, I tried music series, cricketers, politicians, among others, but the subject of my village remained close to my heart. I decided to perfect it and master myself in it. And since the subject was dear, I continued this for a long time,” says Vaikuntam.
Recollecting his favourite work, he says that it all began with charcoal. Vaikuntam says, “My first and foremost medium was charcoal. I couldn’t afford a canvas or such similar means and at the same time, preserving it was a bit difficult. Charcoal was the best and easy to run. Even if you wanted a bigger space, it was easy to handle it. Later, my people got a lot of colours, decorations, as everything had colour like sarees, bindis, walls, etc. While earlier I was interested in black and white, eventually, I later started using these colours, but I prefer only acrylics.”