Studies of his own anatomy have become digital fragments on archival prints. But, the 1963 canvas is a far cry from his present-day personality. The self-portrait at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) has a lanky Rameshwar Broota. Student of Fine Art at Delhi College of Art, he stares at the mirror through the corner of his eyes. Now with brows thick, strands of white in his hair, he paints in oil.
“In college I was known for my portraits,” says the 73-year-old.
When he started his artistic career though, he was to completely refrain from the genre, trotting the path of depicting human condition instead. Traversing through the city, from his home in Rajouri to Triveni Kala Sangam, he was plagued with what he saw; the labourers on the Capital’s streets appeared on his canvases as stark figures of emaciated men, their ribs protruding, and sharing tables with flesh-eating gluttons.
