T.V.Santhosh

T.V.Santhosh

T.V.Santhosh speaks a little. But his paintings and sculptures speak volumes about this artist who would like to keep himself away from the flashbulbs of the page three paparazzi. Trained in painting at the Institute of Fine Arts, Thrissur, Kerala, Santhosh decided to opt for Sculpture when he joined as a graduate student in Santiniketan. Later he joined the Fine Arts Faculty in Baroda and took post graduation in sculpture. Years of struggle finally paid when he had his shows with the Guild Gallery in Mumbai.

Though trained in Sculpture, Santhosh has always been a painter. According to him, the choice of sculpture for graduation and post graduation was a conscious decision to understand a different medium. For him, there are several ideas that come out well in sculptural form and his sculptures done during the mid 90’s prove his point well. Santhosh went back to painting in late 90’s when he finally decided to settle down in Mumbai after his wanderings in various Indian cities.

Santhosh does his paintings with a scientific precision and a purely internal logic justifies the distortions and color schemes that he attributes to them. He has used a lot of mediatized images as the points of reference for his paintings. War and scheming of devil’s doctors are two major themes that he uses for explaining his philosophy of peace. In his own words, “the photographs of wars have played a very significant role in formulating my language. These photographs are part of history, registering it for posterity. But they are photographs and metaphors at the same time. Oil paintings are viewed as if they are photographs. Many people initially thought that my painting was a digitally transferred image on canvas. It deliberately took away the ‘oil painting-ness’ from my painting. It was very interesting to see it look like a mechanically done work, hiding the role of the hand that actually did it.”

Santhosh does a lot of works on paper. He uses watercolours with a great precision and care. The images that he develops in these works are very simple. He enjoys portraying the international political leaders who stood for maintaining world peace. Several of his watercolours have gone into the major collections in India and abroad. For him, watercolours are like an intense play that needs all concentration to execute. “This is a very revealing and liberating experience,” says Santhosh about the process of working on paper.