Murali Nagapuzha is one of Kerala’s most exciting new generation painters. His latest work was on show in an exhibition in the national Capital recently. In a conversation with the artist, KS Narayanan delves into the impulses that imbue his canvases photos by sujan singh
Protests over pollution, seminars on environmental degradation and global summits on climate change have become a daily routine. We may dismiss these events as part of public posturing of a world on the edge of destruction. But for those who silently suffer due to the onslaught of the development-at-all-cost model, these campaigns are a necessity, as it is for those who constantly hammer at the need to revive an “almost lost world”. Murali Nagapuzha, a self-taught painter like the French post-Impressionist Henri Rousseau, is one such man. With his vibrant colour palette and his magic brush, he seeks to put enchantment back into a world of reality. He creates poetry on the canvas with his lyrical, other worldly imagination.
Nagapuzha demonstrated his innate qualities in a series of 50 paintings, titled An Almost Lost World, which was exhibited in the Visual Arts Gallery of the Capital’s India Habitat Centre last week. Nagapuzha’s paintings narrate tales from memory, are steeped in nostalgia and reflect the wonders of the everyday, all of which are fast diminishing in the world around him.
Flowers, plants, birds and beasts are metamorphosed from ordinary to extraordinary in Nagapuzha’s work. K Satchidanandan, a well-known poet and critic, in the curatorial note on Nagapuzha’s An Almost Lost World Series, echoed a similar point of view. “Here the real stretches its arms towards the surreal, everyday things turn into objects of desire, we once again reach that childhood world of wonder and fantasy where everything looks new, everything brings pleasure to the senses.”
Murali Nagapuzha’s paintings remind us of the picturesque locations and beautiful scenery of Kerala. Through the artworks that showcase the rich flora and fauna of the region, the artist inspires people to conserve our natural wealth.
On his paintings, Murali says, “We all know that Kerala is one of the most beautiful places on this earth. But the natural beauty is fast being eroded. The natural wealth of Kerala is getting affected by the commercialisation of the place and an increase of waste and pollution. Just imagine a scenario when we will get to know about flowers and plants only in the books, or about the animals only on the Internet. People are not realising the importance of nature. They are just treating it as a commodity and are taking the natural wealth for granted.”
Most of his paintings are set in his birthplace of Muvattupuzha, a village in Kerala. Strongly influenced by colours of nature, Nagapuzha bring the scenic beauty of Kerala alive on the canvas. Declining any special fondness for the colour green, Murali says he is depicting life as it is. “Kerala is all lush green. It is all vanishing. There is pollution, deforestation and what not?” he fumes and quickly adds, “It is the same story elsewhere”.
Hear what Anita Nair, another well known writer from God’s Own Country, says about the style of Nagapuzha’s art? “As with the cadences of a new dialect that builds itself on the solid syntax of a much-used language, Murali Nagapuzha’s work has the resonance of familiarity. We think we know and that we recognize it. Only at first, Nagapuzha uses the familiar to entice the eye. Then it is Nagapuzha’s world we are privy to”.
A second later, the self-taught painter who studies the works of Bhupen Kakkar and Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh confesses his paintings are all about the Kerala he grew up in and not the one in which he ‘resides’. “In a highly polluted and contaminated environment where even a lung-full of air is a rarity, I try to depict the innocence typical of a bygone village in Kerala.”
“I am not able to see any Palamaram trees or other flowering trees that I grew up with as a child. It is all lost due to increasing urbanization and environment pollution,” Nagapuzha laments. You feel his sense of loss.
Asked what it is like to be a self-taught? “I don't belong to any school. I am self-taught and self-made. So, I follow only my inner voice. I need not rebel and or adopt a particular style.” As the contemporary art scene is vulgarised by facile repetition, Nagapuzha holds the secrets of life between his brush strokes opening up the new frontiers of adventure, nature, fantasy and facts of life to art lovers.
Unable to come to terms with a personal tragedy during the Emergency when he lost many friends and comrades, Nagapuzha forced himself into the interior villages of Kerala. He took solace in books, rural folks and their rich folk arts. The custodial death of Rajan continues to stir the conscious of the nation. Similarly, the young Nagapuzha, who was then in college, endured many personal sufferings. And he continues to be pained by those events till today.
“I protested and demanded fundamental rights. On several occasions, the police raided our house, threatened my parents, brothers, sisters and relatives. They arrested my friend, Aziz, who used to help me design and put up posters. He died a week after his release from unofficial police custody,” narrates Nagapuzha. In the same breath, the painter lashes out at the rising sexual assault on innocent children across the country.
Former editor of a popular children's magazine in Malayalam, promoted by the Desabhimani daily, Nagapuzha is at present a freelance painter. He has also been bestowed with several honours, including the first Raja Ravi Varma award, instituted in 1998 and the Kerala Lalit Kala Akademi honoured him with the State award in 1993 and 1997.
“Flowers and animals teach us a lot of things. They sacrifice for each other and protect their community. I want to tell people that we should learn from them and try to bring some change in our attitude,” says the painter, who during graduation in Zoology did hundreds of drawings on the flora and fauna of his land.
All the artistic motifs in his paintings are drawn from a landscape that is now part of every tourist brochure. Without being banal or kitschy, Nagapuzha’s artistic terrain marvels at the Kerala colours and makes it his own.
But to understand Murali Nagapuzha we need to fist look at Kerala, where every day is a painting. Waiting to be absorbed, distilled and captured.
Protests over pollution, seminars on environmental degradation and global summits on climate change have become a daily routine. We may dismiss these events as part of public posturing of a world on the edge of destruction. But for those who silently suffer due to the onslaught of the development-at-all-cost model, these campaigns are a necessity, as it is for those who constantly hammer at the need to revive an “almost lost world”. Murali Nagapuzha, a self-taught painter like the French post-Impressionist Henri Rousseau, is one such man. With his vibrant colour palette and his magic brush, he seeks to put enchantment back into a world of reality. He creates poetry on the canvas with his lyrical, other worldly imagination.
Nagapuzha demonstrated his innate qualities in a series of 50 paintings, titled An Almost Lost World, which was exhibited in the Visual Arts Gallery of the Capital’s India Habitat Centre last week. Nagapuzha’s paintings narrate tales from memory, are steeped in nostalgia and reflect the wonders of the everyday, all of which are fast diminishing in the world around him.
Flowers, plants, birds and beasts are metamorphosed from ordinary to extraordinary in Nagapuzha’s work. K Satchidanandan, a well-known poet and critic, in the curatorial note on Nagapuzha’s An Almost Lost World Series, echoed a similar point of view. “Here the real stretches its arms towards the surreal, everyday things turn into objects of desire, we once again reach that childhood world of wonder and fantasy where everything looks new, everything brings pleasure to the senses.”
Murali Nagapuzha’s paintings remind us of the picturesque locations and beautiful scenery of Kerala. Through the artworks that showcase the rich flora and fauna of the region, the artist inspires people to conserve our natural wealth.
On his paintings, Murali says, “We all know that Kerala is one of the most beautiful places on this earth. But the natural beauty is fast being eroded. The natural wealth of Kerala is getting affected by the commercialisation of the place and an increase of waste and pollution. Just imagine a scenario when we will get to know about flowers and plants only in the books, or about the animals only on the Internet. People are not realising the importance of nature. They are just treating it as a commodity and are taking the natural wealth for granted.”
Most of his paintings are set in his birthplace of Muvattupuzha, a village in Kerala. Strongly influenced by colours of nature, Nagapuzha bring the scenic beauty of Kerala alive on the canvas. Declining any special fondness for the colour green, Murali says he is depicting life as it is. “Kerala is all lush green. It is all vanishing. There is pollution, deforestation and what not?” he fumes and quickly adds, “It is the same story elsewhere”.
Hear what Anita Nair, another well known writer from God’s Own Country, says about the style of Nagapuzha’s art? “As with the cadences of a new dialect that builds itself on the solid syntax of a much-used language, Murali Nagapuzha’s work has the resonance of familiarity. We think we know and that we recognize it. Only at first, Nagapuzha uses the familiar to entice the eye. Then it is Nagapuzha’s world we are privy to”.
A second later, the self-taught painter who studies the works of Bhupen Kakkar and Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh confesses his paintings are all about the Kerala he grew up in and not the one in which he ‘resides’. “In a highly polluted and contaminated environment where even a lung-full of air is a rarity, I try to depict the innocence typical of a bygone village in Kerala.”
“I am not able to see any Palamaram trees or other flowering trees that I grew up with as a child. It is all lost due to increasing urbanization and environment pollution,” Nagapuzha laments. You feel his sense of loss.
Asked what it is like to be a self-taught? “I don't belong to any school. I am self-taught and self-made. So, I follow only my inner voice. I need not rebel and or adopt a particular style.” As the contemporary art scene is vulgarised by facile repetition, Nagapuzha holds the secrets of life between his brush strokes opening up the new frontiers of adventure, nature, fantasy and facts of life to art lovers.
Unable to come to terms with a personal tragedy during the Emergency when he lost many friends and comrades, Nagapuzha forced himself into the interior villages of Kerala. He took solace in books, rural folks and their rich folk arts. The custodial death of Rajan continues to stir the conscious of the nation. Similarly, the young Nagapuzha, who was then in college, endured many personal sufferings. And he continues to be pained by those events till today.
“I protested and demanded fundamental rights. On several occasions, the police raided our house, threatened my parents, brothers, sisters and relatives. They arrested my friend, Aziz, who used to help me design and put up posters. He died a week after his release from unofficial police custody,” narrates Nagapuzha. In the same breath, the painter lashes out at the rising sexual assault on innocent children across the country.
Former editor of a popular children's magazine in Malayalam, promoted by the Desabhimani daily, Nagapuzha is at present a freelance painter. He has also been bestowed with several honours, including the first Raja Ravi Varma award, instituted in 1998 and the Kerala Lalit Kala Akademi honoured him with the State award in 1993 and 1997.
“Flowers and animals teach us a lot of things. They sacrifice for each other and protect their community. I want to tell people that we should learn from them and try to bring some change in our attitude,” says the painter, who during graduation in Zoology did hundreds of drawings on the flora and fauna of his land.
All the artistic motifs in his paintings are drawn from a landscape that is now part of every tourist brochure. Without being banal or kitschy, Nagapuzha’s artistic terrain marvels at the Kerala colours and makes it his own.
But to understand Murali Nagapuzha we need to fist look at Kerala, where every day is a painting. Waiting to be absorbed, distilled and captured.
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