KOCHI: Veteran artists Dilipkumar M, Jeevan Lal and Vijayan Kannampilly have once again united to exhibit their works at the Durbar Hall Art Gallery in Kochi. Their first collaborated show was in February last year where they portrayed works on various themes.
Dilipkumar and Vijayan were classmates, while Jeevan was Dilipkumar’s brother’s disciple.
“Unlike other disciplines of art, painting provides a freedom of expression. It is infact the reflection of one’s thought process blended with experimentation,” says Dilipkumar M, whose father and brother were also artists.
Various themes
None of them has followed a particular theme but have synthesised the colour and ideologies in their art work. Retired journalist Vijayan has portrayed Gorakhpur tragedy and Peshawar attack with the use old acrylic colours. His motto is simple,”Art may not stop atrocities or untoward incidents, but it can make people aware”.
Jeevan’s series of paintings depicts icons of religions rarely with symbols. Speaking about Kerala murals, Vijayan opines that there is a misconception since there is nothing specific about Kerala in it. There are only Hindu gods and goddesses whose features are determined by shastras. Their presentations will be different according to the varied temples. “If you consider only one panel, you may see only gods or goddess in it. However, if you consider the whole thing altogether, it presents a different story. All are simply adopting the style from shastras. Hence Kerala mural is purely a marketing tactic,” he said.
He says he is not sure that the mural artists are using synthetic colours, but knows that users of natural colours are very limited because the production is very time consuming, expensive and the price of the product will also be very high.
Vijayan cites the example of Picaso’s famous painting ‘Guernica’, which was titled by critics because of its relevance in theme. It was never called ‘Guernica’ by the painter himself. They also stipulate the need for including painting and sculpture appreciation in the academic syllabus for arts students like film criticism and appreciation. All the three artists are planning their next edition in Goa.
The exhibition will be on till November 12.