A linear tribute

K. M. Adimoolam's fascination with the Mahatma has resulted in some stunning line drawings. Unfaltering flowing lines are the essence of his works, writes THEODORE BASKARAN.

THE village of Keerambur in the shadow of Pachamalai hills in Tamilnadu. The blanket of gloom that descended on it with the news of Gandhi's assassination affected little Adimoolam deeply. If any one could touch people so profoundly, he must be an avatar like Buddha, he thought. Though he had only a vague idea about his ideology, he was awestruck by the respect Gandhi commanded from the people and the way he influenced them. When there was no media to talk about, how did he weave such a hold on that tiny hamlet? Admiration propelled this schoolboy to draw pictures of Gandhi using the photographs that appeared in Tamil dailies. He recalls that he drew his first picture of Gandhi in 1953, a line drawing in Indian ink. The fascination endured.

Gandhi has been a favourite subject to many artistes over the years. Cartier Bresson photographed him. David Low projected the image of Gandhi to the western world through delightful cartoons. Nandalal Bose and Santhanaraj painted portraits. Dhanapal and Roy Chowdhury produced memorable portrait sculptures of the Mahatma. Bendre did a series of line drawings to illustrate the book Gandhiji: The Story of His Life, by Gertrude Murray. (Oriental Longmans, 1949). Adimoolam too, chose lines and with the skill he had honed in the College of Arts and Crafts, Chennai, began to work on his favourite theme. I do not think there is any other artist in India who was so engrossed in Gandhi as a motif and has produced so many works as Adimoolam.

At the Arts school when he was introduced to the works of masters, he came under the spell of Picasso. He was to say later "The influence of Picasso's creations on me was much deeper and faster (than others) which I clearly recall even now. My mind reveres him as my guru even today after so many years. The influence which started mildly in 1964, became very strong in the next three or four years and disturbed me deeply." It was a stage in his life, when Adimoolam was looking for a medium and a motif; line drawing and Gandhi inspired him. In 1969 the Government of Tamilnadu organised an event to mark the centenary of the birth of Gandhi. Artists such as Anthony Das and Adimoolam were commissioned to do portraits. He worked with intensity and speed and produced a number of memorable works. In many pieces in this show the influence of Picasso and cubism could be observed.

In Chennai, in the 1960s, there was a discourse on Indianness in art and it centred on linearity. Lines were seen as a part of the Indian artistic continuum. In fact, Adimoolam believes that it is the line that is crucial to art and says that Tamil epigraphs and palm leaf manuscripts evoke the experience of line drawings. The Chola murals of Thanjavur are basically linear, lines filled in with colour. So are the Jain miniatures of Gujarat. It was this tradition that Adimoolam carries on. Unlike the stylised linear figures of the temple murals, his lines are spontaneous and contemporary. One critic draws attention to the broken lines in his drawings and says that they create a perspective of space.

Unfaltering, flowing lines are the essence of his drawings. To retain the spontaneity of the lines, he avoids correcting his work. The method he adopts is to do many drawings and choose a few. Though Adimoolam works with the help of photographs, the drawings attain a totally independent artistic quality. It is minimal art that invests the drawing with expressiveness. He is able to capture the spirit of Gandhi in a few, simple lines. Take for instance the work titled "Namaste" which so effectively reflects Gandhi's compassion. Writing in Lalitkala in 1978, Jaya Appasamy recorded that of all the Gandhi portraits by various artists, it was Adimoolam that appealed to her most. In 1995, he held a show titled "A Hundred Post Cards" featuring his drawings of Gandhi. A number of his other works on the motif went up on a show in 1997 in Chennai and nearly 36 Gandhi pictures are featured in the book brought out on the occasion, Between the Lines: Drawings by K. M. Adimoolam, 1997. Clearly, his line drawing demonstrate his contribution to the understanding of modern art in India.

Adimoolam's drawings cover a period of 60 years in Gandhi's life, from his South Africa days to his last days. There are also pictures of Gandhi with other leaders such as Nehru, Patel and Azad. You have one remarkable depiction of Gandhi with Romain Rolland and another with Tagore. Adimoolam's drawings can be seen a number of institutions connected with Gandhi, such as Gandhigram and the Gandhi Museum, Madurai.

His involvement with this motif continued till 1974 and by that time he had produced more than a hundred works on the subject. Now he has moved on to a different phase in his career. From black and white linear forms, he had shifted to colour and abstracts. No artist can ignore colour for long, he observes.

The three works published here were done in 1969, the year of Gandhi's birth centenary.

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