ADILABAD: While the Cubist movement has spread widely across the world, its influence in Indian art has been limited until now. However, an Adilabad-based artist is showing that art transcends boundaries and inspiration can, indeed, come from anywhere. His recently-concluded exhibition in Adilabad also evoked a good response and was highly commended for the artwork and his choice of themes.
Born in 1965, Annarapu Narender has been into painting since his childhood. While his first tryst with art came when he was a child, his peers, even at that time, knew that he was a special talent. “For Vinayaka Chavithi one year, I prepared an idol and painted a few pictures of the deity. The teachers and students prayed to the idol, which gave me confidence that my work was good,” Narender tells TNIE.
After finishing his Intermediate in Adilabad, he moved to Hyderabad and completed his degree at the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. Later, he also did his postgraduation from Mysuru in Karnataka.
His friends took note of his talents and prodded him to draw an idol of Venkateshwara Swamy during his higher education years. His work received a lot of compliments and only after this did he decide to pursue a career in the arts.
Capturing the essence of Telangana
Despite the foreign style, his work is always rooted in the history, culture and tradition of the State and country. He has drawn portraits and paintings of freedom fighters such as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh.
While his renditions of Hindu gods have earned him praise around the country, Narender has also managed to capture the cultural vibrancy of Bathukamma, the spirituality surrounding Bonalu, the devotion of Potharajus and the aggression of the Telangana Statehood movement in his works.
While refusing to name his style of painting, he says that there is a certain pleasing symmetry and geometrical pattern (often in the form of cubes) in his pieces of work. Commenting on his recent exhibition, he states that he was extremely grateful to have showcased his work in his hometown and receive praise from his people.
He has also displayed his art at the Salar Jung museum and the State Art Gallery in Hyderabad, and at the Chitrakala Parishads and Venkatapa Art Gallery in Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai and other places. He has also taught the family members of former chief minister NT Rama Rao as well.
Writer and researcher Sumanaspathi Reddy, who visited the art exhibition in Adilabad, says his paintings attracted a lot of visitors. Shades of Picasso can be seen in his art, he remarks.