Thota Vaikuntham [1942] is an artist in whom postcolonial strategies cleverly inflect to foreground ethnicity and privilege the feminine gender with a postmodern sensibility. His women are located as the object of male subjectivity implying the ‘other’ of the male gaze implicating power and desire. His works exhibit a native and ethnic responsiveness, negotiated through the distorted yet decoratively patterned female forms in which the brilliant colours are privileged. His obsession with the female forms underpins it with erotic overtones and marks it as voyeuristic. His
reds, greens, oranges and yellows vibrate with heavy sensuality appropriately balanced and contrasted with van Dyck browns and intense blacks. Vaikuntam depicts his Telengana women with her alluring charm, sensuousness and obvious sexuality.
VAIKUNTAM
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