S G Vasudev (B. 1941)

S G Vasudev (B. 1941) Vasudev was deeply influenced by D. R. Bendre's poem, "Kalpa Vriksha Vrindavana," From then on he started reading some of the eminent Kannada writers and it's something that I have kept in touch with one way or another, doing the book jackets for some of these writers. A. K. Ramanujan, Girish Karnad, Ananthamurthy, all these people used to come to Cholamandal. From Yayayti, he developed interest in Indian myths and legends, which started appearing in his work. But it was the idea of the Vriksha, the Tree of Life that slowly started becoming very important form in his work. The Vriksha has been central to Vasudev's artistic vision. It's gone through many mutations, becoming the "Tree of Life and Death" in the late 80s when Arnawaz passed away after a long illness. After a lean period, during his return to his native Bangalore, Vasudev resumed his work, with renewed vigour, with a series of line drawings, based on the theme of erotic love between a man and a woman, that gradually evolved into the more formal encounters that he called the "He" and "She" paintings that he did in the early 90s. Was the Vriksha finally letting go of him? The South Indian emphasis on a strong drawing line that invisibly surrounds the envelope that we call life, is an integral part of its artistic tradition. In his latest phase the habits of a lifetime are being abandoned. The centrality of his subject matter, the tree or floating body, or head, is now abandoned for a more free flowing composition.