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LASTING IMPRESSION Adimoolam’s multi-hued paintings were always full of life

The genial artist was himself in attendance dressed impeccably in a silk shirt and bearing a shy half-smile on his lips. Wine glasses tinkled all around. “I am not used to this,” he whispered. “It is much easier to paint rather than make or listen to polite talk about my work.” I told him that he was the hero of the evening and should hog the limelight. “You will be surprised,” he smiled. “Some time ago, Kamalahasan offered me a role in one of his films. I told him that for a person like me who had difficulty in properly posing for a still photograph, facing a movie camera wouldn’t be possible even in dreams!”

Next day morning, in an exclusive tête-À-tête, he spoke of his childhood in the village. Among his early exhilarations was watching the potter, carpenter and even the cobbler. “For me they were real artists, who could create things with their own hands,” he reminisced. “I could watch them for hours with interest and fascination.”

He also recalled how his interest in the mesmerising line was kindled by observing man and nature. The magical line became a life-long obsession; there was a conscious phase in the early part of his career, when he followed only strong fringes of black and white lines: “Those days, I even thought colour might destroy the strength of my lines.”

He brought scores of kings, queens, princes besides ordinary men and women alive in his drawings and sketches. There were still-lifes and landscapes as well. And then there was Gandhiji. In the 1960s he produced a highly celebrated series of 100 drawings to mark the Mahatma’s birth centenary.

The cultured and innovative artist could not deny himself the lure of colour for long. From a perceptive figurative artist to an insightful abstractionist, the switch was effortless. Adimoolam’s multi-hued paintings, always full of life, brought out the affluent moods and textures of nature brilliantly.

Over the years Adimoolam had become one of the most respected artists of his generation.

With numerous group shows and solo exhibitions to his credit, his reputation stretched across the country and beyond. His association with Modern Tamil Writer’s Group since the mid-Sixties and his evocative illustrations, book covers, and layouts could never be forgotten. A recipient of prestigious awards from Lalit Kala Academy (Chennai), Chitrakala Parishat (Bangalore), Bombay Art Society, Hyderabad Art Society, Academy of Fine Arts (Kolkata), besides the National Award by Lalit Kala Academy (New Delhi), Adimoolam served as a jury member for the National Exhibition of Art, New Delhi, and Bombay Art Society’s Annual All India Art Exhibition. He was the Commissioner for the Indian section in the Third Ankara Biennial at Turkey in 1990. The book, “Between The Lines”, published in 1997 carried his drawings done between 1962 and 1996; the book was revised and re-released recently.

In the last few years, demand for Adimoolam’s paintings increased rapidly. It was also a period of prolonged illness, which he faced bravely and with poise. Above all, he remained a thorough gentleman all his life making an everlasting impression on everyone who came in contact with him. Modest and gracious to a fault, he traversed a long creative path – with sensitivity and humility.

With the passing away of Adimoolam on January 15 at the age of 70, the perfect line seems to have lost one of its most faithful mentors.

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