Renowned artist shibu natesan’s paintings are not dominated by subject matter. It’s all about the art of painting, about illusion: the ‘retinal pleasure.’
In a mesmerizing display of artistic brilliance, Shibu Natesan recently unveiled his solo exhibition “Retinal Pleasure” at The Guild Art Gallery in Mumbai. His masterpieces transcend borders, encompassing a diverse range of genres, from enchanting landscapes to captivating still life and even rare glimpses into his own being through self-portraits. As an artist, Natesan opens a window to a world rarely seen, offering a profound insight into his creative journey.
Each stroke of his brush pays homage to those who have attempted to enfold the universe into their works, reflecting the perpetual value of creative expression. ART SOUL LIFE in a free-wheeling interview with Shibu Natesan unravels the narrative that underlies his awe-inspiring creations.
Who has been the source of inspiration in your early childhood days whose proximity compelled you to take up the less-traversed path of art?
My early childhood inspiration was my father. My father was also a painter and went to the art school in Trivandrum. He used to run an advertising firm and many people used to work for him, making hoardings, cut-outs and portrait paintings. One day, I met a man from Tamil Nadu, he was working for Painting is like a mirror my father. I remember, he was a hippie. Once, he painted a huge painting of Kamal Haasan, Bruce Lee and a few other film stars from Bollywood and Malayalam movies. It was amazing that he had actually painted such realistic, beautiful portraits overnight. Of course, he copied from photographs and I think they were meant for a barbershop. But I was really impressed by those works.
My father sent me to art school since he wanted me to study applied art for advertisement so I could probably lead his organization after him. But I secretly joined the painting department because I was clear that I wanted to do painting.
some painters just carried on with what they were doing. throughout their life nothing changed, they just went deeper into their art practice.
You studied at the College of fine arts in Trivandrum. would you like to share some memories of your college days?
I joined the College of Fine Arts in 1982 when I was 17 years old and fresh from a small place. I used to travel from home to Trivandrum and would go back by local train. My parents didn’t like me to stay in the hostel, so I had to commute every day. Travelling by train, listening to live music in the train, meeting people, seeing the landscapes every day. I also remember, we used to have a great library. There, for the first time I saw the art magazines including Studio International with a lot of monographs on artists. In college we didn’t do many imaginary paintings, mostly it used to be life study classes and most of the students who studied in College of Fine Arts were very good at portraits.
We were rebels, we used to rebel against our teachers. Now I regret that we did not acknowledge many great teachers.
Some of the artists who deeply influenced your work.
Many artists actually…. Influence in the sense that we were fascinated by their work. As I mentioned earlier, I liked German expressionists, Austrian painters in our school time. Later on, my fascination shifted to more contemporary artists like Gerhard Richter whom I found very interesting at one time.
Now, when I look at artists, I feel I actually come from the lineage of Frans Hals, Anthony Van Dyck, Goya, Édouard Manet, William Nicholson, John Singer Sargent. I like the Impressionist painters as well, who didn’t change their style. In the Post-Impressionist time, a lot of new art movements like Cubism, Futurism took shape in early 20th century Europe. But some painters never went with the changes happening in the art, they just carried on with what they were doing. I like these painters. Throughout their life nothing changed, they just went deeper into their art practice, like John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Anders Zorn and American painters like Thomas Eakins, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth are equally my favourite. Now when I paint, I feel I am doing my own thing because getting influenced by someone’s painting is a thing of the past.
In 1996 and 1997, I spent two years in Amsterdam, Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten on scholarship. There I started seeing paintings by masters in the museums and galleries. There were a few artists I was really interested in. Leon Spilliaert, painter from Belgium, Dutch painters like Jozef Israëls, Isaac Israëls, they were very interesting painters not known outside the Netherlands but they were strong painters. Today, when I think of influences, I see influences work in very different ways. When I paint a cloud in my painting, the whole history of cloud painting comes to my mind. That way, I still connect and am influenced, but it’s not a direct influence or copying.
How and when did you conduct your debut exhibition?
What were the learning points? My first solo exhibition was in Trivandrum College of Fine Arts, 1987, when I was a final year student there. The works were all drawings. At the time, I had a girlfriend who was ten years my senior. All the drawings were based on my relationship with her and all of them were her portraits. Professionally, my first exhibition was in 1995, with Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai called Futility of Device. After which I came to Baroda and was more exposed to the art world. Those paintings were all oil on canvas and most of them were six-by-eight feet or six-by-six feet. They were sort of grey paintings. The interesting thing about these paintings was, they dealt with the current political situation at that time.
Painting is actually self-expression and i shoulddirectly get into myown because this worldoutside is an illusion.
what would you state as the narrativebehind your latest solo, Retinal pleasure?
You have showcased a range of artisticgenres including plein air and still life. anyparticular reason?In the early 2000s, I was getting a little tired withmy art practice of using photographic images in mypainting. I thought I was losing something in thequality of painting. So, it took a long time, nearlyten years, to find a way. And also, the kind of life Ihad at that time also affected my painting. Isolatedand lonely, it was not very good. I slowly beganpainting landscapes. That gave me tremendouspleasure and my understanding was moulding. Iwas experiencing more artistic possibilities in thoseworks. I started travelling. I went up the road inIndia and when I went to Europe, I travelled andpainted in England, Wales and Scotland. Gradually,my interest in landscape developed.Then I decided I want to paint everything, I totallyrejected using photographs. I felt I didn’t wantto use photographs anymore. That also helpedme actually look at the photograph itself becausebefore when I looked at a photograph, I would seewhat I could take from it. Now when I look at aphotograph, I see it as a photograph, I don’t want totake anything from it.But then, you can’t always paint landscapes.When I am in the studio, I paint still life, I paintportraits. Most of the time I paint self-portraits,because I am available to me all the time which isvery convenient. Then, whenever I get models orsomebody sits for me, I always try to paint them.Nowadays I mostly paint landscapes outdoors alsocalled plein air paintings, still life paintings andportraits. These are the three genres of painting I’mpracticing now. And I’m really enjoying paintingthem and the experience of travelling and minglingwith others, having contact with people.When I paint outdoors, lots of people flockaround and ask questions.It’s not like painting in a studio. In theoutdoors, the maximum you can take isthree hours. It’s a totally different processthat interests me. It’s that stream ofconsciousness, the way James Joyce put it.
Photorealism in your body of workhas always been appreciated. whatattracts you to this?
I don’t call my paintings of the early days asphotorealistic, because I never tried to painta photorealistic painting. But several criticsand art writers put me in the category ofphotorealistic artist, I don’t know why. So,the question is… with these photorealisticpaintings, I was more responsive to the socio-political events at that time.
