It isn’t always that one stands confused as to whether to look at the artist or his works. But on Tuesday evening, as Thota Tharani stood against a backdrop of his paintings in Art Houz, people took turns hoarding around his paintings and the legendary artist. The exhibition was being organised in collaboration with The Brew magazine.
“These are very few selected works of Thota Tharani we could get access to,” says Sameer Bharat Ram, editor of the magazine and curator of the works at the exhibition. “The works, which span from the 70s till the present, have been selected to showcase the versatility of the artist. You can see the evolution of each stroke over the years,” he adds.
While the abstract strokes and splash of colour fill a few frames, there are other paintings influenced by the streets of Rajasthan during Tharani’s brief stay there in the past, and a few others with a chess board in the background and a young Vishwanath Anand’s face on the side.
“As you can see, the chess pieces are floating,” says Thota Tharani, pointing at the painting that was done two years ago — as an ode to the chess wizard. “There is always a sense of movement which I try to bring in my art,” adds the Padma Shri awardee, moving on to the next piece that is a creative blend of colours...with sudden strokes and dots that seem like inevitable accessories for the painting.
The artist explains, “I have represented the notes of classical music like that of a Beethoven symphony.” The colours spread from dark red that represents the base notes to bright yellow that represents the highest of pitches. The occasional black strokes represent a note in the flute, and the floating golden dots are the drum beats that have a shimmering effect, says the artist. “I hear the symphony, and by the time it ends I have a mental image formed. Then I play it again, and start painting,” adds Tharani, whose recent works on the sets of Sivaji and Dasavatharam earned him accolades as an art director.
While the translation of music into art is awe inspiring for a spectator, talk about his inspiration, and he gives us a long list. Calligraphy, the Chinese Tangram puzzle (wherein one has to complete a square with a set of geometric patterns), a disastrous cyclone, language scripts, black holes or his own name that translates to ‘Garden’ in English — his paintings are a heady concoction of these.
There is, however, one theme which doesn’t make for raised eyebrows in surprise — the aesthetic Ganesha. “Everybody paints Ganesha, but I have tried to bring out the scene of Sarvabhishegam. I wonder why nobody has done that till date,” he says with a modest smile.