From afar, the bright and colourful photorealist canvases of artist Binoy Varghese dazzle and invite. However, upon closer inspection, his figures reveal an imperfection, a slight grimace or a hidden pathos that is not visible initially. Whether it is children posing with masks and keepsakes at a kiosk, or the line of seemingly happy tourists from Vietnam playfully forming a human chain in front of the Taj, there is one figure that seems to depart from this act of celebration. One that is either awkward or obscure; seeming to wrestle with thoughts and ideas that remove them from their immediate surroundings.
Making the work
When you ask Varghese why this is so, there are no straight answers from the reticent artist from Koothattukulam in Kerala. He would rather talk about how he is involved in orchestrating the entire visual effect of the canvases that are part of his solo show, Let 100 Flowers Bloom.
Varghese continues as a photorealist when many contemporaries have moved on to installation art and multimedia.
“When I am painting a canvas, I am completely involved and that is what impresses me and keeps me coming back to it,” says the 51-year-old. “From the moment I begin choosing the visuals, to creating the composition and then painting them from the referenced photograph on to the canvas, I am involved in literally ‘making’ the work,” he says. “I introduce changes, both subtle and noticeable, to the figures and the composition, hence making it my own.” Clearly the altered expressions of his subjects, most of who are women and children, is a layer the artist has added.
Varghese uses the age-old grid system to blow up the images and replicate the composition block by block, rather than projecting the image on to the canvas as some artists are known to do. It is a technique that has been used by skilled artists working in advertising and by cinema hoarding painters. “I rely on my time spent in the film industry, where I used to make cinema and political posters,” he says.
Varghese studied Applied Art at RLV College of Music and Fine Arts in Kochi but, like maverick painter M.F. Husain, did a brief stint as a poster artist. He also worked at Cholamandal Artists’ Village in Chennai, Kanoria Centre for Arts in Ahmedabad, and The Banff Centre in Canada.
The title of his show, derived from Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong’s famous saying, may hint at a dichotomy of sorts given the history, often violent, of the Communist revolution, but Varghese is quick to clarify: “I am only looking at the first half of the Hundred Flowers Campaign.” He interprets the title to stand for all those movements and uprisings in India bereft of government support. “Like what happened after the Nirbhaya incident or the protests at JNU, or the uprising in tea plantations.”Notably, Varghese continues as a photorealist when many of his contemporaries such as Shibu Natesan, Bose Krishnamachari and the younger Riyas Komu who also worked in the photorealist style have moved on to installation art and multimedia.
“I really question this term ‘photorealism’ because even though I am translating a photograph that I have taken or chosen, I am creating a new interpretation,” he says, a bit on the defensive. Then letting his guard down, he admits, “I guess you could call me a bit of a black sheep. When Bose and Natesan were doing realism, I was working as an abstract artist. I was also working with video art and performances. However, my peers, critics and gallerists advised me to concentrate on painting for that is where my strength lay,” he says.
Varghese had his first big solo of figurative works in 1992 when he displayed around 30 paintings. From 2001, he has been focusing on portraits and photo-like images. His earlier works reflected his deep interest in spirituality, with images of saints, churches and other religious artefacts. He also did a series of self-portraits depicting a tormented response to violence in society.
In the latter half of the 2000s, he also embarked on a series of close-up imagery of women and girls juxtaposed with lush vegetation and bright flowers.
Different, not idyllic
“That was a dreamy period, when I wanted to contrast the idyllic world of nature with the hard lives of these women and children. Now, I am doing something slightly different,” he says. His works have evolved from close portraits to a more socio-political lens that works as a unifying gaze of Asia and Africa.
Varghese’s epic canvas of women watching water puppetry, a well-known, traditional form of entertainment in Hanoi, says it all. What is most interesting is that it does not focus on the puppeteers, but on the women spectators, inverting the gaze.
His last canvas from the solo, which was made at a camp in Udaipur, shows a child in the corridors of the vast place, looking at the viewer with wondrous eyes. “Here you can see my new trajectory emerging, for the foliage I have referenced miniature paintings. I think my work may get more stylised from here,” he says.
On view: Let 100 Flowers Bloom, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, till November 18
The writer is a critic-curator by day and a writer-artist by night. When in the mood, she likes to serenade life with a guitar and some Khao Suey.
