The lonesome artist

Artist Yusuf Arakkal confesses of being a lonely person contrary to the happy-go-lucky image he portrays recalling the tragedy of losing both his in a span of six months when he was six and half years old that made him lonely.

Feeling stifled while growing in an affluent Zamindar family in Kerala, at 16, he ran away from home with Rs 30 in pocket. Unable to trace my cousin in Bangalore, I lived on the mean streets for one and half years," says Yusuf who again confesses, " I knew I wanted to become an artist but did not know how."

Odd jobs like working as a tea vendor, cart -puller, assistant mechanic and construction labourer; also a brothel for two-odd days (not knowing it was a brothel), sustained him while he slept on pavements and abandoned railway wagons. "It all sounds very romantic now, but those days were terrible. But the mean streets were the best university I attended, transforming me from the shy person I was to a confident one."

But Arakkal soon realised that to be an artist he also had to practical to be able to afford the paraphernalia that an artist requires. "The artist Jayverma had taught me the academics of oil painting at home but I wanted to learn the techniques," says Arakkal.

Working at night shifts at a factory, he pursued his art education at the Birla School of Art in Bangalore for six years. "The late 1970's saw dominance of figurative art. I have dabbled with different mediums - sculpture, printmaking, graphics and collages," says Arakkal who experimented with abstracts, followed by geometrical structures with recent years seeing the human figure gaining dominance. "I decided to quit my regular job to be able to paint full-time once I won the National Award in 1983," recalls Arakkal.

His latest is a series of oils 'In Solitude' that reflect Arakkals's disposition and his dialogue with loneliness where each human form seems in a pensive, lonely, seeking solitude mode in sombre palettes. "Loneliness is being rejected, solitude is sought. Solitude is a great state of introspection," says Arakkal quoting Mohd Bashir on the endless shores of solitude.

Arakkal has almost never used live models for his human figures (except a series of nudes) but has always had his camera ready to capture people. The dispositions of the human figures on his canvas from various races are from photographs that Arakkal clicked while he travelled (of travelling around the globe except Antarctica).

After digitally altering them on the computer, he screen-printed the figures on the canvas and then started painting. "The graphic quality gives a lot of scope," says Arakkal whose figures are devoid of stark features but are smudged or blurred.

"There is trend to concentrate on the figures, I give attention to the background," says Arakkal. Old, textured and weathered walls are his fascination and have been central to his works. The walls in his canvases tend to close in.

"Old walls are full of history and expression. I used to stare at the Purana Qila walls in New Delhi for hours when I was working in Gadi," confessing that he is claustrophobic even though he has always lived in open spaces.

Arakkal would not use colours if given a choice, "but then they have to be there on a canvas. Black is my constant; it gives a lot of strength," says Arakkal who remembers using bright, exuberant colours only once for a series on kites in the 1990's in Europe because the light was different.

"Subtle colours come naturally to me," says Arakkal, admitting that once a painting is finished he finds it a masterpiece only to slam every corner of it an hour later.

Arakkal also frugally uses light on his canvases and figures and studied Rembrandt in particular on his use of light. "I use light purely to define a shape. The source not important. It is the light in the shadows," he says admitting that he likes a bit of drama in his works.

Moving away from series once it is complete, Arakkal says he gets the jitters even after 40 exhibitions when a new one is unveiled. "In 1995, when the first Christie's Auction in India took place, I had predicted the rise of Indian art as happening today, on the basis of the trend seen in Latino Art in the early 1980's, as artists of both countries are strongly individualistic," says Arakkal.

Gallerist Sunaina Anand of Art Alive feels that "Yusuf Arakkal's works have matured. He is not that exposed as he should be and is one of the finest artists in contemporary Indian art."

For Arakkal, his mantra has been, "a clever artist is one who recognises the aesthetic peak of a work to stop work at it. It is easy to complicate one's art, keep it simple," as this goes for life too.