The Red Palette

The innards of Vadehra Art Gallery (VAG) in Delhi look sparse, a quality inherent to the space, even though it’s dotted with visuals. Enlarged matchbox covers have imagery that suggests power and imperialism — an ornate soldier’s headgear, a gun, a grenade, a crown and even Tipu Sultan. On others, charcoal sketches on paper, are surrealist depictions — a skeleton of an animal standing atop a tank, and the disfigured body of a soldier. Against these visuals on the wall stands artist KM Madhusudhanan. Against all that black-and-white minimalism, he is busy painting a horn atop a sculpture of a swine, symbolic of greed, with bright-red paint. The colour red, apart from the charcoal black and soft white, stands out, but is essential to the palette too. “You can say that it all started from Kerala, where we were heavily influenced by communism and Marxism,” he says.

23 December 2016