Friday Review
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Between the lines
RANA SIDDIQUI
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When K .M. Adimoolam sold his first drawing for Rs.100 in 1964, his hands were shaking. Today not even a crore gives him that joy.
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His style marked by sharp edges and thin strokes makes him stand out.
Power of black Drawings from Adimoolam’s Gandhi and Acharya series.
For 12 years without fail K.M. Adimoolam only drew lines. And that’s why this Tamil Nadu-based veteran’s artworks can be distinguished in the very first glance. His distinct style defined by sharp edges and deft thin strokes makes him
stand out from the rest.
Adimoolam shot to fame with his drawings on Gandhi in pen and ink. His Acharyas and King series comprises nawabs, rajas and maharajas. This series includes some of his well known drawings.
A retrospective of his works spanning three decades is currently mounted at The Mint Gallery in Defence Colony. The inaugural day saw the release of a book on his drawings titled “Lines from an Artistic Life” published by the gallery itself. The exhibition, on view till December 24, features 60 works that are included in the book. It includes his drawings on Mahatma Gandhi, Holy Men, King series, Warriors to Street Theatres and so on.
The veteran doesn’t actually remember why he took to drawing Gandhi. He assumes, “When we gained Independence, I was eight years old. That way I saw Independence arrive. Gandhi was such a big name those days that no talk used to be complete without his mention. So it must have made an imprint on my mind. To draw him, I bought countless pictures of him from, say, the Dandi March, his stay in South Africa and so on. I would draw him endlessly. For two years I drew only Gandhi.
But my drawings were never a copy of those photographs. I would invariably draw him in my own ways.”
Adimoolam also took to painting during the ’70s when he came in contact with some Tamil writers. Recalls the artist, “I did take to colours and started abstract paintings. I started to work on spaces and forms like a hungry man looking for food. But I could never sideline my drawings.”
And that’s why the veteran, who used to work in a government organisation as a designer, took voluntary retirement after working for 20 years and continued with his art. “As a designer I had little freedom of expression, unlike in art,” he reasons. One of his drawings, “The Artists and the Designer” truly reflects the conflict between the two. It depicts the designer sitting in the office being reprimanded by the artist.
Adimoolam could survive as an artist because he had a job to run his kitchen. “I was from a well-to-do family so I wasn’t ‘allowed’ to paint to fetch money. It was considered a humble means of earning. Moreover, drawings would hardly sell. In fact, when I got married, my in-laws didn’t trust me, but my background,” laughs the veteran, who sold his first drawing for Rs.100.
“That was in 1964. I was 34 then. Drawings wouldn’t fetch that much money those days anyway.
So when the buyer handed me Rs.100 for a drawing in which my son Abhay is standing with me with folded hands, my hands were shaking. Today, however much I sell, it doesn’t parallel that joy.”
The artist, who feels Chennai doesn’t patronise visual arts “as much as it does music, dance and theatre”, is now working on drawings based on his travels across the globe.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
