The works of Prabhakar Kolte, John Tun Sein, Achutan Kudallur and of course Adimoolam, together tease out the dreams and intuitions buried in our subconscious, through colour, and highlight a meeting of like-minded painters who seek to construct a vision that is removed from reality.

It has been a month since the Tiruchirapalli-born artist passed away and this is really the first public acknowledgement of his death. The 70-year-old was afflicted by a heart condition and the end was rather sudden. The painter is known among his colleagues as a gentle quiet and helpful father-figure. “He was a good human being and a sincere painter,” says Kolte, a close associate and friend. The two met in 1979 when he had his first exhibition at Pundole Art Gallery. “The painting was very impressive; he was inspired by the Hyderabad landscape that consisted of large stones and boulders,” recalls Kolte. They met again in Chennai in 1999 at a camp in Cholamandalam. “What I admired most about Adimoolam was that he refused to be clubbed with a movement and was not afraid to be alone.” It would have been easier to just join the artists’ collective in Cholamandalam but Adimoolam did not want to follow the dictates of any group, he simply wanted to follow his heart.

Adimoolam began painting early and moved to Chennai in 1959 to study under the tutelage of a sculptor called Dhanapal. Initially his works were figurative but he slowly began to move towards abstraction, though never leaving behind his habit of making drawings and sketches of God-like figures and an intent study of the world around him.

Adimoolam once wrote “My drawings and paintings help to express my feelings. My drawings are not the exact copy of what I have seen through my eyes; but I feel they are the impressions of beauty, which are constantly imprinted on my inner vision and emerge as black and white forms on paper.”