1965-70 : Diploma in painting, College of Fine Arts and Architecture, Hyderabad.
1971-72 : Studied at Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. (On a Lalit Kala Akademi Fellowship).
Teaching Experience: 1985 Lecturer, Jawahar Bal Bhavan, Hyderabad.
Born in Boorugupalli, Telengana region of Andhra Pardesh, Thota Vaikuntam is a legend in contemporary Indian art. Through his works, he has created an international recognition for himself. Simplicity is the hallmark of his works and he is dited for taking Telengana women to global audience through his works. His dark and dusky beauties, the Telangana women, have become icons much loved and sought after by the connoisseurs, as are his pandits and other village folk. Besides his work as a painter, Vaikuntam has also worked on film set designs and with children He has also deep interest in theatre and made Telegu period film - Dassi.
He often works in series, and includes people preoccupied with social and religious happenings in their lives. Some of the themes in his earlier series included mother and child, nudes and erotic images, workers and peasants, musicians and performers, teachers and preachers and of course his world famous Telangana women. His love for music is expressed in the series where we see his men and women with a variety of musical instruments. Many of the features and characters that he worked on in these series continue to remerge in his work such as a greedy priest hiding behind a sundari or a man with a flute. The parrot signifying auspiciousness and love also rears its head occasionally in his work.
The radiance of his colours, which are chosen for their decorative as well expressive effects, needs a special mention. He makes extensive use of oils and acrylics and sometimes inks and wash in different colours. He paints his people, mainly women, in bold and bright colours. The body is painted in shades of black, and their costumes in reds, greens, blues, yellows, mauves, and other primary colours. White and lighter shades are used for men’s wear and when dots and designs are to be high lighted in women’s costumes. He goes for a look of natural colours, used in rituals, such as turmeric yellow, sindoor bright red and off white of the sandal wood paste in the intricate make up of his women. Colour dots and other ritual marks are added onto their faces or bodies to signify festivity. Their jewellery is similarly designed and coloured to suit the mood and image of the character. Vaikuntam who seems to have a natural sense of colour, pays a special attention to get the right shade and texture, which adds another dimension to the hypnotic beauty in the colours of his work.
There is an interesting mix of tradition and contemporaneity in his work. Very few have had the chance to see some of his amazing charcoal drawings and etchings of the earlier period which feature in the book. He lives and works in Hyderabad.
The maturity of Vaikuntam’s icon and the consistency of his style, though occasionally perceived and presented in a negative light, are the distinctive and special features of his work. The remarkable precision and the earthy beauty of his figurative art that fills up the whole of his normally small canvas is the hallmark this incredible artist’s creative oeuvre.
“I like using rich primary colours, which give a sense of character and depth to my paintings. Like reds and saffron and even orange, because these are essentially Indian colours. I don't like using colours that are mix of two, because they are not natural, they don't exist in surroundings around us, in our everyday life.”
- T. Vaikuntam
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