Important Notice

Thota Vaikuntam’s work is deeply indebted to his native rural Telangana and its people. He renders them in primary colours that honour their spirit. Of all the characters he grew up around, the Telangana woman is his most visited subject and he highlights the earthy presence of her body in bold lines. Art writer Sushma Bahl notes how his women are often adorned with jewellery and traditional vermillion and yellow paste to suggest a goddess-like... Thota Vaikuntam’s work is deeply indebted to his native rural Telangana and its people. He renders them in primary colours that honour their spirit. Of all the characters he grew up around, the Telangana woman is his most visited subject and he highlights the earthy presence of her body in bold lines. Art writer Sushma Bahl notes how his women are often adorned with jewellery and traditional vermillion and yellow paste to suggest a goddess-like sense of plenty. “Evoking feelings of fertility, growth, abundance and prosperity, these sundaris seem to represent Shakti, Prakriti and Maya… His colourful renditions of their voluptuous figures with fleshy busts and swerving hips together with elaborate hairdos and jewellery are in tune with the ancient concepts of abundance, productivity and inherent beauty together with those suggestive of eroticism.” (Sushma Bahl, “Encountering the Feminine through Male Gaze,” Thota Vaikuntam, New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2005, p. 92)

The present lot is an “expression of these rural joys, of a connection with the soil and other human beings” enjoyed by Vaikuntam. (The artist as quoted in Thota Vaikuntam, p. 62) The figures stand together resplendent in finery absorbed in the business of playing traditional music, as if for a village celebration. Sanya Malik notes Vaikuntam’s grouping together of these figures creates a communal feeling that breaks down their stark individual identities and their pink palms create “a sense of harmonization of people and animals, the way that God intended. Rural cultures still abide by that thinking-that every living thing is a creature of God.” (Sanya Malik, “Thota Vaikuntam: An Enduring Reverence,” Thota Vaikuntam: A Celebration, Mumbai: Saffronart and New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2022, p.10)

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