Achuthan Kudallur was endearingly grouchy on the phone. He called intermittently and hung up abruptly, forgoing superfluous niceties for disarmingly honest conversations on family, art and life. Not surprisingly, the reclusive artist who passed away on Monday morning at a hospital in Chennai, is mourned by a large group of friends, family and fans.
He will be remembered for his prodigious talent, of course. Aged 77, Kudallur was a significant force in India’s contemporary abstract art movement. A writer-turned-painter, his luminous canvases, pulsating with colour, drew international attention to the Madras Art Movement in the 1970s. He won multiple awards, including the Tamil Nadu Lalit Kala Akademi award in 1982 and the National Academy Award in 1988 and exhibited his work widely, both nationally and internationally.
He is also remembered for his unexpected patience and willingness to mentor talent — from hopeful young artists and gallerists to his staff’s children, whom he dotingly allowed to run amok between his canvases at his house by the sea in Thiruvanmiyur.
