Tom Vattakuzhy, 58, has been painting since the late 1980s. Some may remember him for Death of Gandhi, which gained immense fame for its realistic depiction of Mahatma Gandhi’s death. It was featured on the cover of the Kerala State Budget 2020-21 and became the most photographed work at the India Art Fair 2023.
Based in Muvattupuzha, his hometown in Kerala, Vattakuzhy’s luminous canvases have been exhibited widely across India and abroad. Yet, it took more than three decades for the first solo exhibition of this much-acclaimed artist to be organised in the country. The Shadows of Absence, curated by noted art historian R. Siva Kumar and organised by the Institute of Contemporary Indian Art, opened in Kolkata this July and is on display at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, until September 13. Excerpts from a conversation with the artist:
Q: What took you so long to hold a solo exhibition in India?
Sunday Afternoon; Tom Vattakuzhy
A: I was never ambitious about organising a solo exhibition of my works. Exhibiting is not my end goal; it’s not why I paint. For me, art is a kind of self-exploration. My teachers at Santiniketan were great artists like Somnath Hore and K.G. Subramanyan, who didn’t create art just to exhibit.
Making a painting is a process of self-enquiry. I paint to find my inner moorings, or when I know a situation or feeling cannot be expressed in words. I am happy about this exhibition but it’s not what drives me to paint.
Q: Your canvases often feature desolate, forlorn individuals. Who are they, and why are they so lonely?
A: I think there’s a little bit of me in each of the figures you see in my paintings. Or so I was told recently by a viewer in Kolkata. They are born out of my imagination. They are not people I know personally or have observed over a period of time.
A feeling of melancholia reigns supreme in my works because it is my constant companion. I was a lonely child who found refuge in Malayalam film songs. Even in my teens, I found the world around me rather melancholic.
Young girl with a jar; Tom Vattakuzhy
You will find regular people in my paintings. There is nothing extravagant or heroic about them. I am often asked about the use of light in my work, and I have thought about it a great deal. I have concluded that when you are in the dark, you become very conscious of light. You yearn for it. Maybe my characters are the same.
Q: I have heard people say that your paintings are very relatable because they are set in domestic spaces and revolve around family or everyday occurrences in the household. Are you trying to tell stories through paintings?
A: Home is a constant setting for my paintings. I feel our true selves are best revealed at home. Outside, we wear masks. But I am not a storyteller, and there’s no clear narrative in my paintings. You can call them visual stories if you like. I am concerned with the interiority of my characters and try to unravel their inner landscapes. My paintings may evoke a feeling, a mood.
Having said that, I must clarify that I am very interested in all forms of art —literature, cinema, philosophy — and learn from them. They all emerge from life. But painting is a different creative expression. It is not literature, or even a substitute for it. I am not making statements through my paintings. My surroundings and contemporary events may influence what I paint, but I am not depicting any specific event. My painting is not a placard.
Birthday; Tom Vattakuzhy
Q: How should people view your work?
A: I don’t wish to dictate how people should view my work, but I do want to say that it is not merely what is painted on the surface. It is a provocation to think. It evolves in the viewer’s mind. A painting should create some resonance. You should feel and respond to it through your own experiences of life.
Q: We often hear talk about the “death of painting.” Do you perceive it as a real threat?
A: Painting can never die. It will continue to evolve, and its potential is endless.
The interviewer writes about art and culture. He teaches at FLAME University, Pune.
Published – September 05, 2025 04:37 pm IST
