Retirement is often treated as an end. For some, it turns into a new beginning or rekindles their interest in passions long set aside. Freed from institutional roles and timelines, they find new, sometimes more personal forms of expression.
For A G Radhakrishnan, a 64-year-old rocket scientist who retired as group director at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and is now presenting his first solo art exhibition at the Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan Art Gallery, there is no such thing as retirement. “You continue learning. You continue doing things,” he says.
The exhibition, which opened on Tuesday, brings together 148 works executed in pencil and charcoal, watercolour, acrylic, and oil. The gallery opens onto landscapes, city views, and fragments of nature that emerge slowly, as if grown out of the habit of looking gently over time. Water, architecture, and solitary forms recur throughout, anchoring the works in patience and close looking.
Travel appears not as documentation but as memory. Familiar places are rendered with softened outlines and a subdued presence. In the smaller works, animals and flowers are approached with a light, careful touch. Even the abstract compositions seem to breathe within an underlying order.
Radhakrishnan began working seriously on his art in September 2021, shortly after his retirement.
However, his love for art was ever-present. “I was thinking about how to spend my time creatively,” he says. “I always had a passion for art, but I never had the time. Work kept us constantly occupied. After retirement, I decided to finally begin.”
He joined Tint Academy, where his practice began to develop. “My work in space science was all about precision. We were always looking outward towards bigger systems, larger-than-life missions, rockets, and space. After retirement, I started looking inward,” he said.
Travel became an important catalyst. After his wife’s retirement, who also worked with ISRO, the couple began travelling extensively. “When you travel, you observe everything,” he says. “Museums in other countries influenced me deeply, especially their reflective spaces. Eventually, nature also began to enter my work.”
He started sharing his sketches with friends and family through WhatsApp groups. Their encouragement gradually nudged him towards exhibiting his work publicly.
Drawing from his 34 years as a scientist, Radhakrishnan sees no separation between art and science. “You integrate elements you have not seen before and attempt something for the first time. To do it right the first time, you need imagination — that itself is art. When I entered the art field, I saw so many similarities. Observing and translating what you see onto paper, working with accuracy, colour, and perspective. In a way, it is also a science. So, I think art and science are connected,” he explains.
He approaches both with the same unguarded curiosity, and the shift, he says, was an easy one. “What I did for rockets, I could translate into my artwork. It was simply a different kind of passion. After engineering, my journey in science began. After retirement, another passion began. At ISRO, I worked in integration. It was teamwork, driven by complete commitment. Here, my team is colour, and I work with it in much the same way. I enjoyed my years at ISRO, and I am enjoying my work now. I hope it continues for many years.”
Now, with a clear sense of where he wants to go, Radhakrishnan sits before the canvas daily, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening, working until he reaches a point of saturation, and then returning to it the next day. Smaller works are completed within two or three days, while larger canvases take a week or more. He now wants to move into even larger canvases, working with bigger brushes.
For Radhakrishnan, the real reward for all his effort lies in the viewer’s response. “If these drawings make someone pause, think, and spend a moment looking. If they feel what the work represents, that is my greatest satisfaction,” he says, smiling.
However, his love for art doesn’t end with paintings. He has also begun exploring tunes and notes. “I also started learning the keyboard. My younger brother is a very passionate keyboard player. When he plays, I also feel like doing that. After retirement, certain people take up consultancy, the same kind of work. But I felt I needed a break from all that, so I started these hobbies.”
As he says, he continues to learn, exploring worlds that may look different from the outside, yet feel closely connected to the life he has lived, complementing one another.
The exhibition will conclude on January 15