By Francis P Barclay
Indian mythology is an art of its own and sculptures are an inherent part of it. Sorcerous postures, whirlwind romance and lustrous colours mark this otherworldly art, which, unfortunately is not in vogue now. If anything of
it is available, it’s there at Ajanta and Ellora caves and also on the walls of a few temples across the country.
Elanchezian, who calls himself a carrier of this art, displayed a plethora of mythical art works along with his classmate Siva Kumar at the Kasthuri Sreenivasan Trust Art Gallery in a five-day exhibition last week.
Although Elanchezian’s paintings have a strong influence of Ajanta, Ellora frescoes, he prods his imagination to give out a set of peerless art works.
Now when the European art style has subdued the traditional Indian art forms, he gives life to sculptural art on canvass. He, as a researcher of Indian sculpture art, has visited many temples like the not-so-famous one
built by Narashima Varma Pallavan II, who was also known as Rajasimhan.
“The temples and the mythical art forms have a lot to offer to art connoisseurs, but they are not adored,” he said.
His paintings, limned out of bright colour schemes, take one to tranquility. His themes are from famous sculptures like Somaskandha and Mahishasuramardhini as he finds association with the sculpture art and paintings. In his paintings he equates the curved features of gods and goddesses and their half nudity to the sculptural art. And in all his mythical subjects, with their eyes half closed, appear the moon, peacock and lotus.
He says “I don’t believe in the rules about colours and so does the Indian art.”
He seems to be not bothered about the association of feelings with colours and uses colours to give a neat sketch. His paintings are more of imaginations and creativity. To say Indian mythology is more yoked with nature, he combines the blest forms with flowers and birds.
On the other hand, the down-to-earth artist Siva Kumar sees canvasses as records of history. His paintings, from a group of girls sitting and chatting to a girl combing the hair of her sister to a traditionally dressed woman with a round `pottu’ and neatly combed hair remind us of a scene seen somewhere earlier. He captures images from everyday life, of simple people posing with all probity.
“For people tomorrow, this would be a guide to show how people lived with innocence and modesty,” Siva Kumar says. His themes are either verbose nor overbearing. He simply records the lowborn life of the locality with a realistic touch.
In all, both want to preserve the naiveness and endowment of Indian culture for the future.
Published in The New Indian Express on December 9, 2006