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Still life
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Doddamani’s paintings of isolated figures are on display
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When I got off at Howrah station, I was really scared looking at the mass of humanity around me,” recalls Bangalore-based artist Doddamani. “Being born and brought up in small village and town, I was looking at such huge crowds for the first time in my life. My first thought was to somehow get on to a train which would take me back to Gulbarga even if it meant abandoning all hopes joining Santiniketan. Luckily, I met a Bihari co-passenger who understood my predicament and dissuaded me. He also helped me board the right train which would take me to the station from where I could reach Santiniketan.”
Born in 1968 to a simple farming family in a small village near Gulbarga, Doddamani showed artistic inclination since his younger days. Doddamani joined the Ideal Art School and came out with flying colours. A stint at Santiniketan followed where he earned the Masters degree in graphics from the Viswa Bharathi University. Returning to Bangalore in 1992, he worked as a designer in a garment unit and later as a curator at Images Art Gallery . Doddamani’s work is characterized by isolated human figures under shimmering light. There is an all-pervading silence and stillness in his paintings; the postures of his protagonists are tender, their expressions serene and emotions subdued. In some instances, the characters seem to converse with their alter-ego, striking a dialogue through gentle gestures rather than words. One is also struck by the large number of Buddha images rendered by Doddamani over the years. “In the early 1990s, I met with an accident which incapacitated me,” recalls the 40-year old artist. “I was bedridden and there was hardly anyone to look after me. I could not walk properly. The suffering I went through left a deep impression. It was in that situation that the image of Buddha came repeatedly in my thoughts and dreams. Eventually, when I recovered and started painting, his image appeared on my canvas quite naturally. Till date, I have done about 150 of Buddha images.” An exhibition of Doddamani’s work is on at Right Lines Art Gallery, Indiranagar (25272827) and continues till November 10.
GIRIDHAR KHASNIS
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Puducherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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