Art - MAHAMAG Magazine beyond boundaries

Artist Namboodiri recently turned 90 and although the artist humbly refused to take any credit for his longevity and creativity Namboodiri himself explains that whatever he has done or been doing is a mere sub product of the good times he lived in and the good people he met

Namboodiri, received his formal training in art and design from the erstwhile Madras School of Arts and Crafts, during its heyday when it was spearheaded by big names of 20th century Indian art such as D. P. Roy Choudhury and K.C.S. Panicker

He remembers those days as productive days of drawing though not strictly academic but as opportunities for self-exploration to arrive at a genuine style. What mainly interested him was the linear representation of human mass and volume on the flat surface of paper or canvas, yet attributing an illusory depth through the use of perspective. He already possessed a skill and control over his lines that impressed the jury during the entrance test there and so he was awarded a ‘double promotion,’ which cut down the years of his training in the Madras School.

, He joined Mathrubhoomi, The Malayalam illustrated weekly as staff artist. He later worked in kala kaumudi, the Malayalam illustrated weekly as staff artist. Almost all of the leading Malayalam writers have benefited from the illustrations

The three decades that followed became the most important phase in his creative life when he could gain his trademark style and establish himself as a skillful draughtsman alongside M.V. Devan and A.S. Nair.

Namboodiri’s drawings largely depended on the fluent, sweeping lines that shaped and

Artist Namboodiri continues to inspire and entertain with his master strokes

inscribed human and animal forms. Economy of gestural, sure lines akin to the Chinese traditions in writing and drawing became associated with his drawings too. Soft and plump curves of female figures and elongated male torsos soon got viewed as the artistic mannerisms of Namboodiri. The male characters that he drew were visualised in an idealised, epic dimension with broad shoulders and thin waists, the females with full bosoms and wide hips, drawing inspiration from Ajanta and Kerala temple idols

Namboodiri also did paintings on canvas and sculptures in wood, stone and sheet metal. It would be unwise to consider Namboodiri to be a mere illuminator of literary imaginations of writers. He found a profound need to express through a dominant use of line and space for which he relied more on his memory and not just on the image that he perceived in his immediate surroundings or in literary works.

Namboodiri admits that he always had doubts about the quality of his works; he often felt he could have done them better. He believes that he cannot achieve anything better than what is there in nature and always feels nullified even while his admirers praise him. Even when he gets criticised for not representing any images of the marginalised or the subaltern, people still fondle the memory of the diverse images of his women of all ages, of which he has become a master without any parallels. There is no other artist, living or dead, who invoked the essence of Kathakali in a few strokes of lines, or who could even draw the costumes, postures, gestures and expressions with such confidence.

His ability to draw a vast expanse crowded with people, either witnessing an event or held in a battle scene, is remarkable and awe inspiring

Courtesy Manoj Vyloor