Thota Vaikuntam

Renowned Indian artist Thota Vaikuntam hails from a very lowly origin. In the Karimnagar district of Telangana (formerly Andra Pradesh), in the town of Burugupalli, his father owned a grocery store. This is where he was born in 1942. After completing his studies at the College of Fine Arts and Architecture in Hyderabad, he was awarded an Andra Pradesh Lalit Kala Akademi Fellowship to study painting and printmaking at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Here, he received instruction from renowned artist K. G. Subramanyan. The everyday existence of Telangana’s villagers is captured in Vaikuntam. His subjects, almond-eyed men and women from his village, are seen in his paintings as they go about their daily lives, visiting temples, talking with neighbours, getting water from the neighbourhood well, and working in the paddy fields. He also shows them carrying toddy pots on their shoulders. The basic colours used in Thota’s colour scheme are in rich, vibrant tones. Because he thinks composite colours are strange, he dislikes employing them. These hues also correspond to the people of rural Telangana who like wearing vividly coloured clothing. His subjects, who are frequently the women of his hometown, are portrayed wearing vividly coloured sarees, their hair styled in a bun, an abundance of bracelets, a large red bindi covering their foreheads covered with turmeric, and an exquisite nose ring. Thota depicts monstrous, muscular, and stocky ladies, in contrast to the delicate, lovely, and attractive woman figures of other artists. The artist believes that although the women in his community may not be very attractive, they are endearing and impulsive. He discovers them to be kind, gregarious, robust, incredibly hardworking, strong, and self-assured. The majority of them are middle-aged women who have a strong matriarchal position—a characteristic that is prevalent throughout Southern India. His paintings depict masculine folk wearing traditional clothing, with a large tilak adorning their foreheads and a thick, bushy moustache. These men are frequently depicted conversing with the women in the paintings or performing a musical instrument. Among many other honours, Thota Vaikuntam was awarded the Lalit Kala Akademi’s National Award in 1993 and the Bharat Bhavan Biennale Award in 1988. He has exhibited his paintings in several group and solo exhibitions all around the world throughout the years, including Germany, the USA, and Singapore.