The magic of ordinary
This city-based artist, displaying at the India Art Fair in the capital, falls in love with objects around him every single day.
Hyderabad-based artist, Anjaneyulu Gundu’s name has become synonymous with realistic paintings over the years. This time too, at the four-day India Art Fair in New Delhi, from February 9 to 12, his exhibits are pure reflections of his village. Be it the soda cart, cycle, lantern, mancham (village cot) or the thumma karra (thorns), all are common sights in any Indian village.
Titled Here, Now and Then, the solo exhibition captures the hyper-realistic artist at his best. Most of his paintings are against a white background. The reflections and light play in the artworks emerge from his own imagination. In fact, this particular aspect is the most difficult part of a painting, which is why it takes Anjaneyulu a minimum of 30 to 45 days to finish each work.
A realistic painting is not just about copying an object, feels Anjaneyulu. “For this exhibition, I took around two months to finish the cycle painting whereas the mancham took me almost three months and the soda cart took 45 days. Time taken to finish one artwork depends on the play of light and shadows in the painting,” he says.
Mostly, he works on oil on canvas and linen and Anjaneyulu’s technique is a simple one. He shares, “I start with a plain background adding simple shadows and paint them in a different angle not used by others. At first, I tried painting nails and pliers, rusty canisters, handwoven baskets and then clothes with a visually printed background. I began to look at objects in my room from an artistic perspective and they began to glow with life. Soon every object became my subject. Ordinary things are not ordinary to me. When I start working on them, it is like a bond. All my works are special to me as they are part of my everyday life,” shares the artist who falls in love with everything he sees.
This 42-year-old painter pursued his B.F.A. from JNTU College of Fine Arts and is excited about the exhibition. “I am really excited to see how people will react to my work at the India Art Fair,” he says.
Notably, the art show by Art Aline Gallery at the annual India Art Fair is the leading platform to discover modern and contemporary art from South Asia and a portal to the region’s cultural landscape.