Artist Namboodiri recently turned 90 and although the artist humbly refused to take any credit for his longevity and creativity, art and literary fraternities of Kerala and elsewhere had reasons to share their joy with him; for they have an artist who has a large output of drawings that maintain quality and appeal and also an artist with a long career, both a rarity when it comes to art in the state.
A section of his aficionados see him as a literary illustrator, a fine one or even a genius at that, while a good section of artists feel that he has made a major contribution to the scene of visual art in the region.
Anyway Namboodiri himself explains that whatever he has done or been doing is a mere sub product of the good times he lived in and the good people he met. K.M. Vasudevan Namboodiri, or Artist Namboodiri, received his formal training in art and design from the erstwhile Madras School of Arts and Crafts, during its heyday when it was spearheaded by big names of 20th century Indian art such as D. P. Roy Choudhury and K.C.S. Panicker.
He remembers those days as productive days of drawing though not strictly academic but as opportunities for self-exploration to arrive at a genuine style. What mainly interested him was the linear representation of human mass and volume on the flat surface of paper or canvas, yet attributing an illusory depth through the use of perspective. He already possessed a skill and control over his lines that impressed the jury during the entrance test there and so he was awarded a ‘double promotion,’ which cut down the years of his training in the Madras School. Already burdened by a weak financial background this became a blessing, as he could complete his studies a couple of years before the stipulated formal period. He soon got inducted as an artist into a leading Malayalam weekly and later became a much-sought-after artist in Kalakaumudi , Malayalam and Bhashaposhini .
The three decades that followed became the most important phase in his creative life when he could gain his trademark style and establish himself as a skillful draughtsman alongside M.V. Devan and A.S. Nair. Namboodiri loved to draw for the stories of Punathil Kunhabdullah, M. Mukundan and Methil Radhakrishnan, among others. But it was the works of M.T. Vasudevan Nair and V.K.N. that plucked the chords of his creativity the most.
Namboodiri’s drawings largely depended on the fluent, sweeping lines that shaped and inscribed human and animal forms. Economy of gestural, sure lines akin to the Chinese traditions in writing and drawing became associated with his drawings too. Soft and plump curves of female figures and elongated male torsos soon got viewed as the artistic mannerisms of Namboodiri. The male characters that he drew for M.T.’s Randamoozham were visualised in an idealised, epic dimension with broad shoulders and thin waists, the females with full bosoms and wide hips, drawing inspiration from Ajanta and Kerala temple idols, unlike M.T. who narrated them as ordinary humans.
Namboodiri also did paintings on canvas and sculptures in wood, stone and sheet metal. It would be unwise to consider Namboodiri to be a mere illuminator of literary imaginations of writers. He found a profound need to express through a dominant use of line and space for which he relied more on his memory and not just on the image that he perceived in his immediate surroundings or in literary works.
Namboodiri admits that he always had doubts about the quality of his works; he often felt he could have done them better. He believes that he cannot achieve anything better than what is there in nature and always feels nullified even while his admirers praise him. Even when he gets criticised for not representing any images of the marginalised or the subaltern, people still fondle the memory of the diverse images of his women of all ages, of which he has become a master without any parallels. There is no other artist, living or dead, who invoked the essence of Kathakali in a few strokes of lines, or who could even draw the costumes, postures, gestures and expressions with such confidence.
His ability to draw a vast expanse crowded with people, either witnessing an event or held in a battle scene, is remarkable and awe inspiring. Such is his visionary skill that he was invited by curator Jitish Kallat to represent his drawings enlightening on the theme of history, geography and explorations at the dawn of colonisation as part of the second edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2014. It is noteworthy that the Kerala Lalitha Kala Akademi could build a permanent administrative centre and a gallery in Thrissur and convert the Durbar Hall in Ernakulam into an art centre, during his tenure as the chairman.
Namboodiri had also associated with filmmakers like his close friend Aravindan in acclaimed works such as Uttarayanam and Kanchana Seetha as art director and designed the character of Gandharvan in Padmarajan’s Njaan Gandharvan .
His works could become major areas of research in future to denote the significance of visual memory and documentation of a region and its culture.
(The author is professor in painting at the Government College of Fine Arts, Thrissur)
