The first-ever English translation of the living legend 'Artist' Namboodiri's memoir, Sketches features his eloquent line drawings interspersed with vivid portrayals of the people and places- both ordinary and significant-that he grew up with. Opening a window into the esoteric and forgotten world of twentieth-century rural Kerala, Namboodiri describes how certain family homes and community spaces were the centres of creativity, cultural exchange and mutual regard. With a sprinkling of light humour, he writes about a self-proclaimed doctor who sought out patients, the most famous temple festival that he could not witness, a neighbourhood elephant's encounter with a deaf man, among other amusing vignettes. Through the chronicles of his time at art school, his job as an illustrator for a leading Malayalam magazine, his novel experience of making a film with an actor who didn't want to be paid, Namboodiri offers an exclusive glimpse of the world of art and literature. Among other renowned names, K.C.S. Paniker and Vaikom Muhammad Basheer make an appearance. Vast in sweep, endlessly engaging and infused with Namboodiri's charming wit, Sketches is a visual and literary delight.
K.M. VASUDEVAN NAMBOODIRI, better known as ‘Artist' Namboodiri, is an eminent illustrator, painter and sculptor from Kerala. Born in Kerala in 1925, he was a disciple of renowned artist K.C.S. Paniker and studied painting at the Madras School of Fine Arts. He is known for his own style of line sketches, and is regarded as a proponent of 'finger painting'. He has drawn for many leading magazines as well as for significant writers of the twentieth century. Namboodiri has done art direction for a few Malayalam films, and received the Kerala State Award for Best Art Director for Uttarayanam, directed by G. Aravindan, in 1974. He is a recipient of the Raja Ravi Varma Puraskaram, 2003, and has been the chair of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi. GITA KRISHNANKUTTY is a renowned translator, having won the Sahitya Akademi Award (2001), the Crossword Award (1999) and two Katha awards (1993, 2000). Gita has a doctorate in English literature from the University of Mysore and has studied French. She lives and works in Chennai
Namboodin has sketched here certain people and events that linger in his memory. They are not in chronological order Nor is this an autobiography that follows a given arrangement. These are glimpses that touched an artist's heart and because of this, its composition is unique It seems as if words have been transformed into sketches, granting us the ability to create a huge canvas from a few lines. We watch forms take shape from random scratches and turn into characters pulsating with life. The characters that walk out from between the words of these sketches are infinitely varied. The image of KCS, Paniker stands out brilliantly from amongst them. There are other portraits: Chembai Bhagavathar Poomulli Raman Aphan, Doctor, Kavu Minor characters summed up in just a few words take on a living presence, even if they are only associates confined to the wings of the stage… Chembai's disciples and their disciples and his admirers have written volumes about him. But the Bhagavathar who takes shape through Namboodin's sketches, a rustic and venerable patriarch who boasts of no other haloes, is a person who endears himself to us. Black, white, lines, colours. Namboodiri has mastery over all of them. He can create sculptures in stone, wood and cement. He is the proprietor of multifaceted accomplishments. This work proves to us that he has the power to transform words that have the originality of common usage devoid of pomp or adornment-into beautiful writing. It is in Namboodin's nature to look at the cruelty of life and laugh, saying, this too is, after all, the human condition. As a person who has moved closely with him over a long period of time. I have often observed this trait in him. We worked in the same office for many years, seated in adjacent rooms. I see that sense of humour glimmering like gold dust throughout these memories. All of us belong to the old Ponnani taluk. We grew up in the domain of V.T Idasserry, Uroob, Akkitham, Kadavanadu. When I come upon the beautiful patterns of the idiom of that region darting through these word-pictures every now and then bits and pieces of my past that lie hidden behind a screen are suddenly touched upon by light. And through my reading. I experience the agonizing grief and great joy of nostalgia
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