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Yusuf Arakkal |
We are a nation of figures, gestures and narration. These are part of our
psyche. The real is the aesthetic is a norm for artists like Yusuf Arakkal. Looking back
at the changing contemporary art scenario in Karnataka, a great enthusiasm evolved in
figuration in the 70's reflecting the tendencies of artists who made specific choices, to
continue a legacy of figurative painting.
The use of the human figure as a significant element in his work was a part of a programme
of artists who represented the middle class and people living on the edge. This was an
individual political standpoint with a social concern, but not a radical movement. The
viewer came face to face with the individual |
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image. It was a human and sympathetic
encounter that was successfully adopted by artists of his generation.
The two - dimensional figures are introspective and haunting. He captures the poses and
moods of humble people in stoic silence. His people are typical, eternally waiting
characters caught in situations of conflict, contemplation or just a state of being.
Textures of Silence
Texture being his significant element, was achieved by a close link with material. This
along with an experience of feeling and touching helps to recreate natural textures, worn
out with time. |
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Yusuf was never a
colorist, but chose texture to activate his surface. It has a distinctive character from
his formative years. This preoccupation has established his style and signature. His
humble beginnings and poverty of means as an art student has also contributed to a limited
palate of monochromatic colours in earthy shades. Occasionally he dabbled with crimson or
yellow for a dramatic effect. Yusuf uses a multitude of means to create these textures. It
involves a technique of lifting the paint before it dries. He creates many marks that
achieve the coarse quality of rough surfaces by the textures created of brush marks. These
surfaces evoke tactile sensations of weather-beaten grains of wood, walls stained by the
rains, dressed granite, or any interesting surface that has mellowed with time into a
patina.
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He structures his canvas with grids, borders, graffiti, doodles to evoke urban walls.
These are marks left by society to react, celebrate, or it is just a gesture of self
expression? His early water-colours were unusual for their parchment- like quality. He
handled them like his oils in a skillful manipulation of colour. This process has shaped
his work ethics which is spontaneous and very productive.
His latest canvas reconstructs his vocabulary. He creates brooding atmospheres where the
blurring and smudging of images move beyond specific appearances. They don't illustrate
but evoke an atmosphere using pictorial chiaroscuro.
His experiments with three dimension has retained his obsession for texture. The granite
murals, sculptures that pay homage to the machine and industry, are part of his experience
working in a factory. But the most memorable and unsurpassed series was called "Faces
of hunger" about the African famine, in terracotta. The material yielded to the
pressures and the sensitive handling, where the image associates itself to the earth and
when its baked it achieved numerous shades and textures. The tactile medium and the
malleable quality of the clay is moulded by the hand. Bodies of children reduced to bone
and skin, hollow sockets, starving humans made from this earth, haunting children wrapped
in gunny sack like the ancient Egyptian mummies. These were the images of suffering and
also the recollection of violence and politics that cause these calamities. The rough
surfaces of the sculptures were tactile. The smell and colour of terracotta, remind us of
the eternal truth "from earth we come and to earth we return." In the prime of
his career will the artist drop his brush and canvas to mess his hands with clay? To find
faith in fragility.
It is important to place Yusuf with his contemporaries. The artists of his generation have
a common air, their ideology "Social concern" and the aesthetic of perceiving
reality through keen observation of their surrounding and dominant human predicament.
These acts of perception vary from direct observation, photographic references and memory.
In the National scene artists were making conscious choices in forms of figuration
parallel to the modernist development of the West. Exposed to a wide range of influences
intensely evolved with they social realities. The current attitude of the artists like
K.T.Shiva Prasad, Ramesh Rao, Bhaskar Rao and Nataraj Sharma have emerged as some of the
prominent figures where figuration and particularly social realism represents a new spirit
in Karnataka. |
RESUME - YUSUF ARAKKAL |
1945 - |
Born in Kerala |
1973 - |
Diploma in painting
from Chitrakala Parishath College of Art, Bangalore |
1980 - |
Specialisation in
graphic print making from the National Academy community studios, Garhi, Delhi. |
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Solo shows in India
Since 1975 - Over thirtyeight shows at Bangalore, Madras, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Calicut,
Cochi, Trichur, Calcutta, Mumbai, New Delhi. Works exhibited include mediums like Oils,
Water colours, Graphics, Collages and sculptures - in Bronze, Terra-Cotta, Wood, Granite,
Steel, Paper, Fibreglass etc.
Group shows in India
Since 1969 - most major juried shows, state and all India level shows, National
exhibitions and exhibitions organised by Private Galleries and other groups. |
Solo shows abroad |
1992 - |
Relays De Monts -
Siux, Limousin, France |
1993 - |
Gallerie Taormina Del
Arte - Le Hwre, France |
1994 - |
Srijana Contemporary
Art Gallery - Kathmandu, Nepal |
1994 - |
Art Forum Gallery,
Singapore |
1996 - |
Wallace Gallery,
Chelsea, New York |
1996 - |
Air Gallery, Dower
street, London |
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International shows |
1971 - |
Indian Artists at
Belorussia and Moscow |
1985 - |
Thirty contemporary
Indian Artists at Habana, Cuba |
1985 - |
Contemporary Indian
Art show at the National Museum Mexico City, Mexico |
1985 - |
Second Asian Art show,
Fukuoka, Japan |
1985 - |
Indian Printmaking,
Festival of India, USA |
1986 - |
Sixth biennale de beau
Art, Beaumount, France |
1986 - |
Third Asian Art
Biennale, Dhaka, Bangladesh |
1986 - |
Inaugural exhibition
of the National Museum of Modern Art, Seol, Korea |
1986 - |
Sixth International
Triennale, New Delhi, India |
1987 - |
Ninth International
Biennale de Sao Paulo, Brazil |
1993 - |
Nine Indian Artists
CCA Gallery, New York |
1994 - |
Indian printmaking
show, Maltwood Art Museum & Gallery Victoria, British Columbia |
1994 - |
Indian Contemporary
Art Show, Gallery Maya, Hong Kong |
1995 - |
Heads and faces - an
exhibition by Gallery Maya, Visual Art Centre, Hong Kong |
1995 - |
'Save the children'
auction by Sothebys, Bombay |
1996 - |
Indian Contemporary
Art show, Nagai Garo, Tokyo, Japan |
1996 - |
32 Contemporary Indian
artists - exhibition and auction by Christies, London |
1996 - |
Women in Indian Art,
by The Gallery, Visual Art Centre, Hong Kong |
1997 - |
Auction of Indian
Contemporary Art by Christies, London |
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Awards and recognitions
Several awards since 1970 for paintings, sculptures, graphics protraits and drawings that
include the Karnataka Lalithkala Academy awards for 1979 and 1981. The National award in
1983, a special award at the third Asian Art Biennale Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1986 and the
Karnataka Lalitkala Academy honor in 1989.
Nominations
To the national Academy of art as an eminent artist, in 1984.
To the Karnataka Lalitkala Academy in 1988.
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