SG Vasudev: Vriksha Yyatra OR An Eternal Expedition Of Evolving Artistry

Born in Mysore (Karnataka) in 1941, S.G. Vasudev received recognition as a painter early in his career. He was awarded a National Scholarship by the Government of India in 1964, while he was a student of the Government College of Art- Madras and a National Award from the All India Lalit Kala Academy in 1967. S G Vasudev, one of the most prolific proponents of ‘indigenous modernism’ or ‘Indian modernism’ has always worked across multiple mediums simultaneously, from oil on canvas and ink on paper to copper relief and silk tapestries. This perhaps explains why, over his long career of five decades, his creations seamlessly flow from one to the other. The Vriksha has been central to Vasudev's artistic vision. “It was a powerful concept that has been visualized in almost every other culture that you can think of, in some way or another. Even an artist like Mondrian was inspired by looking at the branches of a tree... To me it symbolizes sexuality, fertility, procreation, as well as our links with our past, its myths and legends, the branches spreading out into the future," says Vasudev. Like the tree he envisions, his own art appears linked irrevocably to the past, rooted in ideas already realised, even as it looks ahead towards the future, growing further in new directions. When looking at his work chronologically, therefore, one notices that Vasudev’s themes often spill into one another and then reappear again like old refrains. The Vriksha melds into the Earthscapes; while the Maithuna and the Theatre of Life converge at some point. This merging of images and renewal of ideas give his work both freshness and familiarity. When you see a new Vasudev work, you recognise a familiar motif and yet there is always something new and different that he brings to it.