Indian Painting Thota

Thota Vaikuntam is one of the Greatest Artists from the Indian Subcontinent. Vaikuntam was born in Burugupalli, Andhra Pradesh. Vaikuntam completed a Diploma in Painting at the College of Fine Arts and Architecture, Hyderabad in 1970 and Painting and Printmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda in 1972. Vaikuntam is preoccupied with portraying the men and women from his region. Vaikuntam is an Indian Modern painter. His paintings capture the simple lifestyle of villagers like the paddy fields, toddy pots on shoulders of men, the household chores, temple rituals and much more. His drawings range from stark charcoal on paper, transparent washes and pencil drawings. Vaikuntam paints colorful and elaborately dressed Telangana region, men and seductive women. His muse is the sensuous and voluptuous women of Telangana with their omnipresent vermilion bindis, draped in colorful sarees that highlight their dusky skin. The stylization of a painting is a perfect foil to Indian classical dance as the figures seem to dance as if following their creator in a statuesque movement, reminiscent of temple friezes. Vaikuntam uses the brightest of reds and yellows. The simple women become larger than life as they fill the small format of his paintings draped in bright Sircilla saris. "I like using rich primary colors, which give a sense of character and depth to my paintings. Like reds and saffron and even orange, because these are essentially Indian colors. I don't like using colors that are a mix of two, because they are not natural, they don't exist in the surroundings around us, in our everyday life." says T. Vaikuntam. Men and women of his village are often the central characters of his work. The obsession can be traced back to his childhood when he used to be fascinated by the male artists who used to impersonate female characters in the traveling theatre groups that performed in his village. Vaikuntam admits finding the women of his village very sensuous and that he only attempts to capture their vibrancy. Vaikuntam’s art has a sense of strength to it, a power that emanates from the paint or charcoal that he applies to the surface, from his controlled lines and from the fine strokes that he executes. Vaikuntam has held solo and group exhibitions. He was awarded the "National Award" for Painting in 1993 and the "Biennale Award" from Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal in 1988–89.

The first decades of the 20th century were a period of artistic upheaval, with modern art movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism and Dadaism questioning centuries of traditional views of what art should be. Using abstraction, experimental forms and interdisciplinary techniques, painters, sculptors, photographers, printmakers and performance artists all pushed the boundaries of creative expression.

Major exhibitions, like the 1913 Armory Show in New York City — also known as the “International Exhibition of Modern Art,” in which works like the radically angular Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp caused a sensation — challenged the perspective of viewers and critics and heralded the arrival of modern art in the United States. But the movement’s revolutionary spirit took shape in the 19th century.

The Industrial Revolution, which ushered in new technology and cultural conditions across the world, transformed art from something mostly commissioned by the wealthy or the church to work that responded to personal experiences. The Impressionist style emerged in 1860s France with artists like Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas quickly painting works that captured moments of light and urban life. Around the same time in England, the Pre-Raphaelites, like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, borrowed from late medieval and early Renaissance art to imbue their art with symbolism and modern ideas of beauty.

Emerging from this disruption of the artistic status quo, modern art went further in rejecting conventions and embracing innovation. The bold legacy of leading modern artists Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and many others continues to inform visual culture today.

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Figurative art, as opposed to abstract art, retains features from the observable world in its representational depictions of subject matter. Most commonly, figurative paintings reference and explore the human body, but they can also include landscapes, architecture, plants and animals — all portrayed with realism.

While the oldest figurative art dates back tens of thousands of years to cave wall paintings, figurative works made from observation became especially prominent in the early Renaissance. Artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance masters created naturalistic representations of their subjects.

Pablo Picasso is lauded for laying the foundation for modern figurative art in the 1920s. Although abstracted, this work held a strong connection to representing people and other subjects. Other famous figurative artists include Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Figurative art in the 20th century would span such diverse genres as Expressionism, Pop art and Surrealism.

Today, a number of figural artists — such as Sedrick Huckaby, Daisy Patton and Eileen Cooper — are making art that uses the human body as its subject.

Because figurative art represents subjects from the real world, natural colors are common in these paintings. A piece of figurative art can be an exciting starting point for setting a tone and creating a color palette in a room.

Browse an extensive collection of figurative paintings on 1stDibs.