Rustic Ragas: Inner Melodies of Thota Vaikunta

This book presents fifteen new dramatic paintings by Hyderabad-based artist Vaikuntam. Vaikuntam's Telangana folk meld the memory of his eyes and his fingers. They embody a unique world, of daily rites of life couched within an imaginative terrain. The monumentality of Vaikuntam's figures in rich primary colours of the earth assume a mythical dimension, enhanced by the solidity of their execution in acrylic. They seem like demigods, not village folk - looming, tantalizing, almost unapproachable. Vaikuntam voices the collective yearning for a separate Telangana identity, beyond politics, beyond couched cultures. His rich palette and easily recognizable faces and figures have given his work acceptability; paintings that are strikingly modern without any allegiance to anything usually associated with modernity. In these huge canvases, Vaikuntam immortalizes his earthly icons for all time.

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