Artwork by Premlata Seshadri | Photo Credit: RV Ramani
A retrospective titled Birds of the Kaveri by artist Premalatha Seshadri at the Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai, depicts a vivid imagery of birds with art. As time passed, she worked on removing all that she felt was unnecessary in order to find the essence of what the line could communicate. This is how he got his signature style – stick figure with dots. Small lines and daubs became birds, waves, lotuses, turtles, fishes, men on horses, etc. His visual vocabulary is strong and simple, embodying the fundamental characteristics of minimalism.
Premlata Seshadri | Photo credit: Chennai Academy of Fine Arts
Premalatha, who studied art in the mid-60s at the Government Arts College under KCS Panicker and other senior artists from the Madras School of Art, experimented with block prints in Gandhinagar, Madurai. He did printmaking at Garhi Studio in Delhi, under the guidance of artist Devraj Dakoji. She started painting landscapes with oil paints and knife in her early days and gradually she got her unique style which could be termed as “reverently to the line”.
About five decades ago she came to Chennai, then called Madras, as a newlywed and married her husband, social scientist Dr. C.V. Seshadri went to her home on the beach of Injambakkam. The sky, sea, monsoon rains, birds, fishes, turtles, and colors and rhythms, have influenced his body of work all these years.
Artwork by Premlata Seshadri | Photo Credit: RV Ramani
Premlata talks about her early years growing up with her siblings and a “blissfully carefree life”. Being the youngest, sometimes her solitude led her to explore drawing with pencils, crayons and colours. This is where it all started.
A wall of photographs displays a visual timeline of his life, from childhood to youth and then to his journey in the world of art. The exhibition displays his works from various exhibitions. Hunt 1985 was inspired by Ayyanar terracotta images along with metaphors from his personal life.
A wall of photographs in the exhibition shows a visual timeline of Premlata’s life. Photo credit: Chennai Academy of Fine Arts
fractal Premlata had another landmark show where turtles were her source of inspiration. It is meant to be a mathematical term for attempts to break down patterns in nature into smaller pieces until a new pattern, perhaps even chaotic in its consequence, is formed. The intersection of intelligence for loveliness and the challenge of rendering it two-dimensionally on paper often results in Zen-like works with deep thought. Claiming her mastery over the line, she says, “Now I can handle and manipulate anything.”
Artwork by Premlata Seshadri | Photo Credit: RV Ramani
She says of her process, “The controlled line in my work is not accidental or coincidental. Nothing is really accidental. It is a skill of controlling the brush and pausing at the right time. It is a discipline that has to grow and develop and this requires the intellectualization of concepts.”
Memory, nostalgia, life lived in nature, poetry in simplicity and movement all come together in Premlata’s work. Birds feast on blue lotuses, tortoises multiply and then become solitary, fishes diverge and converge, lines blur in art. “On rainy days, I used to walk along the seashore and feel the fury of the sea inside me, as the rain showered down,” she adds.
“I’m glad my work is being seen, recognized, finally acknowledged after all these years in this retrospective,” she says with a twinkle of joy in her eyes and her trademark peal of laughter. It is an important milestone at the crossroads of his artistic journey.