Indian art: Meet the masters of popular aesthetics
These artists form the bulwark of the market and include well-known names with a consistent body and quality of work. To the public, they represent the face of Indian art without having to carry the burden of social engagement, thereby, believing in art for its own sake.
Curated By: Kishore Singh
Innocent lust
THOTA VAIKUNTAM (b. 1942)
Telangana Woman with Pot
Acrylic on canvas
41 x 29 inches
This Telangana-based artist did not have to look far for his muse before chancing on his iconic figures that are so popular among his collectors. There is something immensely appealing about Thota Vaikuntam’s Telangana doppelgangers— voluptuous women in gaily coloured saris, their blouses festooned with beads, their kohl-lined eyes suggestive at once of romance as well as passion, an erotic charge being a suggestive element in his paintings. The figures and their relationships in his works have been the subject of discourses around rural lifestyles and the position of women within its society whose independent femininity and sexuality form the whole and complete context of Vaikuntam’s oeuvre.
THOTA VAIKUNTAM (b. 1942)
Telangana Woman with Pot
Acrylic on canvas
41 x 29 inches
This Telangana-based artist did not have to look far for his muse before chancing on his iconic figures that are so popular among his collectors. There is something immensely appealing about Thota Vaikuntam’s Telangana doppelgangers— voluptuous women in gaily coloured saris, their blouses festooned with beads, their kohl-lined eyes suggestive at once of romance as well as passion, an erotic charge being a suggestive element in his paintings. The figures and their relationships in his works have been the subject of discourses around rural lifestyles and the position of women within its society whose independent femininity and sexuality form the whole and complete context of Vaikuntam’s oeuvre.
