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Colours of Nature and Kathakali
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Surendran P. Karthyayan, who has just won the Lalithkala Akademi Award for the best painting, has his works exhibited at the Durbar Hall Art Centre. SHILPA NAIR ANAND has a chat with the artist
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PHOTO: MAHESH HARILAL AND VIPINCHANDRAN
COMMUNION WITH NATURE Surendran P. Karthyayan is a sculptor too
Surendran P. Karthyayan was preparing for an exhibition of his paintings at the Durbar Hall Art Centre last weekend when the Lalithkala Akademi awards were announced. His painting, part of a series titled `Towards Nature,' won the Lalithkala Puraskar . It has been selected for the Akademi's award for the best painting.
A profusion of bright colours from the eight frames (part of the same series) vie for attention. Ask the Thiruvananthapuram-based artist Surendran about his palette of hues of red, blue and green which dominate his canvas, he ponders for a minute before coming up with an answer. "If you think about it red, blue, green and white are the colours of Kerala. The landscape abounds with greenery; these are the four colours that one sees in a Kathakali vesham for instance. There are so many other elements about our culture, it is unfortunate we are losing touch with these things in the name of progress," he replies.
The depleting ecosystem is one of the things that concern the creator of the series, `Towards Nature'). Surendran is no stranger to awards, his sculpture `Portrait of Picasso' was given the Lalithkala Akademi award for the best sculpture in 1995. This time, the medium is different.
Apart from nature, the loss of all things traditional such as Kerala's architecture with its pillars, nalukettu and intricate carvings is also a matter of concern for this artist. "It is shocking and heartbreaking, the ruthless rate at which the demolition-construction cycle works. One day there would be this beautiful piece of traditional architecture and then the next time you go there, in its place is a spanking new concrete building," says Surendran. Be it architecture or vegetation, the inspiration is undoubtedly from Kerala. His earlier exhibition at the Durbar Hall Art Centre was predominated by local flora and fauna. His current exhibition at the same venue is an artistic manifestation of his concern of the plunder of nature and the loss of all that is traditional to Kerala, in fact he blends the two concerns. Each painting looks out into the vast green populated by palm trees and vegetation, typical of Kerala, and he also captures elements of the effect of being indoors with details such as showing parts or complete pillars, parts of a wall or a window. Surendran's medium for the current show is acrylic on canvas.
Vasthushastra
Surendran explains that his preoccupation with architecture led him to study Vastushastra. The other reason being that buildings are essentially sculptures, and sculpting is another of Surendran's passions. "A building is essentially a sculpture or an extension of a sculpture, an aesthetic building is in essence a beautiful sculpture," he explains. As an artist he straddles the world of artistic expression in two vastly different mediums - sculpture and painting - with equal ease. However, his artistic career is marked by phases when he has devoted himself exclusively to sculpting and then to painting. "I had stopped painting in the real sense after my training in painting from RLV College of Music and Fine Arts, Tripunithura in 1979. I wanted to sculpt, so I enrolled for the BFA in Sculpture from the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram. I, however, discontinued the course once I got a job with the Kerala Agriculture University in 1982. I rejoined in 1991, and completed the course 1993. I got back to painting in 2004," says Surendran.
An artist with the Kerala Agriculture University, he has been drawing but never really painting in the intervening 20-odd years. "I did not paint because I felt I had to find my `palette' so to speak. Weighing painting and sculpting, I realised that I like the three-dimensionality of a sculpture. The tangibility of the form drew me to it," says Surendran. Sculpting so suited his artistic sensibilities that he won the Lalithkala Akademi award for his wood sculpture, `Portrait of Picasso.' His favoured medium is wood, a medium that ironically comes into conflict with his environmental concerns.
Quiz him on that and he admits it is indeed a dilemma. "I have worked with various mediums, including fibre glass, but the sheer effort that goes into carving a block of wood is extremely energising and satisfying. But, I agree at the end of the day, it is wood." He may be alternating between painting and sculpting in what appears to be mutually exclusive phases, but the phases are essentially just appearances.
"As a sculptor I was never away from drawing or painting. To create a sculpture I have to draw what I intend to create, so in that sense I have been painting or drawing throughout without a break," he says. For the time being the sculptor has taken a break, and the artist has taken over, "I want to dabble in colour to my heart's content," and maybe make up for lost time.
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