Yusuf Arakkal retrospective showcases the artist's journey over four decades

The Hindu

20-06-2025

As one steps into the white-walled, high-ceilinged hall on the first floor of the Durbar Hall Art Centre, the Last Supper I at the far end screams 'look at me' and 'keep looking at me.' It is very hard to take one's eyes off the six-feet-by-eight-feet oil on canvas painting.
Paintings from the late Yusuf Arakkal's Christ series are on display on all the walls. If The Pieta, Gethsemane Prayer, The Prayer, The Baptism induce a sense of peace, The Crucifixion, The Resurrection and Crucifixion and Resurrection are moving. While some of the works in the series mark a departure from the conventional imagery (Caucasian) with a Christ with marked Afro-Asian features, some of the works veer toward the conventional.
Celebration of Solitude and Humanity, as a retrospective ought to, is a comprehensive look at not just Arakkal, the artist, but also his preoccupations as a human being — it is an intersectionality of aspects that shaped his sensibility. We get to travel with him, as he evolves in his practice and finds his individualistic, artistic idioms.
Through 40 years of Yusuf's works
The works span 40-odd years from the 1980s to his demise in 2016, marking his creative trajectory. By no means diminutive in size, imagination, creativity or execution, the show is, 'wow-inspiring'.
An introductory note informs us of Arakkal's evolution as an artist. It tells us how despite an early bent towards abstraction, he went on to use figures as his primary mode of expression. Abstract as some of the works are, look carefully and one sees more.
The retrospective was first mounted at Bengaluru in 2022, after what Sara Arakkal, Arakkal's wife, art curator and dealer says, 'This is a major show for me. A lot of preparation and studying on how to put together a retrospective. A year's worth of planning went into it. We were, after all, revisiting almost 50 years of Yusuf's works.'
This was also a way of showing works that were 'stuck at home'. Like the current show, the Bengaluru showcase put on display his entire oeuvre (excluding those in private collections) be it paintings or sculptures wrought in a variety of media such as copper, steel, aluminium, and terracotta.
An introduction and a revisit
It is an entire textbook for practitioners of abstract works, a lesson in being intentional with their practice. The absence of conventional visual elements does not have to be chaotic, that the 'abstract art' can communicate. This 'homecoming' show may well be an introduction of the artist to a generation, and a revisiting for those who have known him and are familiar with his works. Although she would like a showcase at the Kochi Muziris Biennale (KMB), Sara says, 'The commercial aspect is secondary, my main aim is that I want people to see Yusuf's works.'
The canvases are by no means easy, they seem to be the result of deep reflection and introspection. As one walks through the gallery one gets a sense of the artist — how the very personal is also political.
The works on show are from the series Insolitude, The Street, Urban Uncertainties, Ganga, Linear Expressions, Wall, Inner Fire, Kite, The Child, Tribute to Masters, Basheer, besides some of his earlier works and later works.
Social commentary
While some of the paintings derive from the human condition or rather the isolation of being human, the others are social commentary like the triptych, serigraph War, Guernica reoccurs, a hat doff to Picasso's Guernica but placed within the Indian context of the Godhra, the starting point of the 2002 riots. Done in 2003, it communicates the discomfort the artist would have felt.
The paintings of the Tribute to Masters series are testimony to his cosmopolitanism besides showing how aware he was of the art and artists of the world. Others from the series like (Francis) Bacon's Man, Boy and Priest, Francis Bacon's Study of Lucien Freud, Toulouse Lautrec, and Modgiliani for example show how he was an artist of the world. Then there are the Faces of Creativity, the pen and ink drawings of 135 contemporary Indian artists, which shows his engagement and interest in the works of peers.
The sculptures, from the Wheel, Chair and Flight series, show an artist who is unafraid to explore various media and means of expression. That gives the viewer an insight into their breadth of vision and being able to articulate their creativity.
For instance the Arto Mobile, a copper hued 1956 Fiat Millicento placed at the entrance of the gallery, the dull orange a contrast to the grey of the rainy day. The car with an armour plate-like metal covering of art, according to the accompanying note, brings together elements of the Harappan and Egyptian civilizations. The relief work has images of the wheel, hieroglyphics and the surface of the car reminiscent of the planned lines of the Harappan cities, for instance. The automobile thus becomes a vehicle connecting the two, in a manner of speaking. If you have not yet caught the show, this is your cue. It will be well worth your time.
The show, part of the KLKA Retrospective of Eminent Artist Series - VIII, presented by the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi and Sara Arakkal Galerie concludes on June 24