Old art in new avatar

Three friends are cycling down a village in Kerala, the wind in their hair, hands insouciantly off the handlebar, the mundu at half mast around the waist.

This is not the kind of image you will ever find in the mural art on the walls of Kerala’s stunning temples. But give the cycles brilliant spokes shaped like rustic fronds, factor in lotus eyes and classic faces, and you can get a slice of century-old art on your drawing room walls.

For over a decade now, Suresh Muthukulam has been painting contemporary canvases in the style patented by Kerala’s mural art.

Traditionally, the themes have always been iconographic. But Muthukulam and other artists like him — Sadanandan is the other big name in this field — are now using the framework of mural art to depict the modern world in the traditional colour palette, panchavarnam: Indian red, yellow ochre, blue-green, green and black.

“Why should modern art only draw inspiration from the west? There is such a rich heritage of traditional styles we can draw upon for inspiration, as Bengal’s Jamini Roy did,” says Muthukulam. “The treatment is traditional but my issues and figures are modern and real.”

Familiar forms
Art inspired by traditional forms tends to grab eyeballs. The forms, colours and contexts are familiar, rich and instantly attractive. There is heavy detailing and a lot of ornamentation. Human forms are very gracefully etched.

Muthukulam’s themes are mostly rural and very idyllic. There is no great obsession with realism. Here are men, women and children for whom time is not an overwhelming fact of life. They are on bicycles, boats, on foot, lolling under the coconut tree, shooting the breeze: scenes you are not likely to run into even in villages now.

“Oh these are very much real in my village in Aranmula,” says Muthukulam, who trained from a very young age in mural painting. He mastered the art at the mural art college in Guruvayoor and for many years painted the typical iconic figures. He has not let go his connection with the original form of his art but the bulk of his work now is contemporary in nature.

Gallerie Dravidam, which held an exhibition of Muthukulam’s work in Delhi, specialises in art that is rooted in traditional styles such as Kalamkari, Dakhani and miniature painting. Founder Jaya Mani says that there is a limitation in the themes an artist can tackle in traditional styles. “Plenty of traditional artists are trying to interpret modern themes but it is not easy. Their training is strict and it is tough to break out of the framework set by tradition. This means that you have more craft than art in your work and you get stuck in a groove,” says Mani.

Even though the typical mural factor is not as pronounced in his art, leading Malayalee artist A Ramachandran has been profoundly inspired by it. He studied the form for his PhD at Shantiniketan and his use of rich, luminous colours and his interpretation of puranic themes owe a lot to the art on Kerala’s temple walls. In his writings, he recalls being strangely awed as a child by the art on the walls of the temple in his village (whitewashed over, he adds, by an overenthusiastic government when taken over by the state).

Wider patronage
For decades temple murals were abandoned to the elements. It is only lately that conservation efforts have made sure that they are not lost to time. Most of those who are practising the art today are students of the legendary mural artist Mammiyoor Krishnankutty.

Traditional mural art has a very limited market because it can be commissioned only for temples and at one time, for palace interiors. “Even rich landlords could not have them on their walls — this art was that exclusive,” says Muthukulam. Giving it a contemporary makeover was one way of ensuring that it had wider patronage.

When Mumbai artists Bose Krishnamachari built a home in Kerala, he had a massive mural painted on one its walls. The nearly 20’x20’ painting had the birth and life of Krishna as its theme and was executed by the other acclaimed mural artist Sadanandan. Though the style was traditional, the colours used were acrylic and not natural.

“If you have mastery over a medium you can do anything you want with it. It is good to know and use local practices - classical or folk — in your art. It gives you great confidence. Sculptor Chintan Upadhyay is heavily influenced by Rajasthani craftsmanship but the vision is his own. Italian painter Francesco Clemente uses elements of miniature art,” says Krishnamachari who maintains that classical styles do not necessarily limit your creativity.

Could we see edgy, urban themes executed in the style of Kerala’s temple murals? “Why not?” asks Muthukulam. “Mural art creates a kind of fantasy world. And that can exist anywhere, even on city roads,” he says.