Street life comes alive
RANA SIDDIQUI
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Yusuf Arakkal’s works “The Street” travel to London’s Aicongallery this June in association with Art Alive.
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photo: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Brush of class Yusuf Arakkal prepares to take his work to a global viewership this summer.
His innocent child on the street looks at you in awe. There is some hope too. A young man seems to be riding his bicycle to ward off his loneliness. A person with a sound economic standing is busy on his mobile. A girl hides partially behind a wall a
t night. She seems to be waiting for her ‘clients’. An old man limps ahead with a walking stick as the only support. Another ageing man peeps through a sepia wall as if moaning about the times gone by.
All these strong images in a spectacular mix of light and shades, crumbled walls, plastered houses and lonely streets, ironically come from a man with a royal lineage to boast!
Meet Yusuf Arakkal, the 64-year-old artist from Kerala who has earned fame because of his realistic images of everyday life – remarkably done in nostalgic and yet rebellious moods. For five years, he has been repeating the same images on the same canvas for “higher impact”. This time these images form an exhibition called ‘The Street’. It is travelling to London’s Aicongallery shortly in association with Art Alive gallery.
The images form a replica of street life in London. But curiously none of them seem from there. All his people seem to belong to every place.
Arakkal’s soft demeanour belies his royal lineage. His mother belonged to the royal family of Arakkal, the only Muslim royal family to have ruled Kerala. His father belonged to Kayees, a renowned business family based in Kozhikode and Thalassery.
Mention his lineage and he says, “I remember them feebly. I was six-and-a-half when my mother died. I faintly remember that she was extremely beautiful, and was very young as compared to my father. She may be under 30 when she died a tragic death. My father couldn’t take it. Within six months, he also died. I was too small to be influenced by my royal lineage. I am still not. It is only five years ago that I went to my palace. I went there as a part of an assignment for Penguin Books on (painting series on the) royal palaces of Kerala.”
Arakkal was taken to Bangalore where he faced a lot of hardship from early days. His passion for painting led him to do a diploma in painting from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat (KCP), Bangalore. He later specialised in graphic print making from National Academy community studios, Garhi, Delhi.
Early days
He recalls his early days, “I did all sorts of odd jobs to survive, from a dye maker to a factory worker. I was a rebel at heart. So I joined trade union also. One day an uncle of mine saw me in Bangalore in a dismal condition. He was shocked and took me to his home. I spent a good part of my life at his home. By the time I was 16, my drawings and paintings had won several awards.”
It is surprising to note that the man whose water colours are remarkable examples of expertise with the medium, hated them once. Laughs the artist, “In my school days, I used to persuade my friends to make water colour works for me to submit as assignments.” His heart was for oil and acrylic on canvas.
Today Arakkal is a name to reckon with. He received the prestigious Lorenzo De Medici Gold Medal, at Florence Internazionale Biennale, in Florence, Italy for his work Bacon’s Man with the Child and Priest, apart from National Award in 1983. After which he left his factory job and became a full time painter. Despite his royal lineage and fame, Arakkal is down to earth. There was a time when he led a protest rally with other artists in Bangalore and went to all media houses demanding space for art. Today, media attention and celebrity status make him feel uncomfortable.
“I am an artist. I want comments on my works. But I don’t like to be a celebrity. If I did, I would have become an actor. I tell my friend Mammooty (the superstar whom he resembles) you look like me. I could give you a run for your money,” he laughs.
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