Canvas of memories: The perspective, geometry and criss-cross pattern in Anand Saastry’s works create a harmonious visual effect

Anand Saastry's solo art show has works are inspired by the clay roof tiles of houses in villages. Using an aerial perspective, the works also the changing terrain of Hyderabad. The works are on display at State Art Gallery

Anand Saastry’s canvas breathes new life into the clay roof tiles of houses in villages. Tiles brings a sense of nostalgia to this 61-year-old Hyderabad-based artist who cherishes years of growing up in Velpucherla near Eluru in Andhra Pradesh. His solo show Abodes of Admiration at State Art Gallery pays tribute to the distinct architecture, planning and indigenous knowledge of carpenters working on the traditional rooftop village houses. However, the 36 works in mixed media are more than echoes of the past; he also maps the changing terrain of Hyderabad in his unique way.

“The painting is like the entrance of a main door, one has to walk past the door to explore it,” says the artist, pointing to the fragmented features of his works. Using an aerial perspective, Anand depicts a space as he sees it : rooftops, pathways, courtyards (verandah), a flight of stairs in an old house or a bus/tractor on a village road. While various aspects of his drawings/images draw you in, the geometry and criss-cross pattern in them creates a harmonious visual effect. “I perceive my work as a creation of visual dissonance (disruption) with which I intend to evoke emotions in my viewers,” says Anand, who adopts a two-pronged approach — analytical (objective) and synthetic (subjective) — to art.

For Anand, it has been a balancing act as a banker (retired from State Bank of India in 2021) and an artist. A self-taught artist and a voracious reader, Anand’s multifarious influences — Observing his surroundings, books he reads and discussions with experts — have all helped him create an art language of his own.

Paradoxically, he believes unlearning is crucial to open up new vistas. “My strong points are perspective, geometry and tile house structures but I unlearned them to explore my potential,” he recalls. He began to work on watercolours and depict landscapes in his own way. “I didn’t deviate from the tiled house pattern but reflected on a object and its space from a higher perspective.”

His fascination for the tiled houses of his village found a connect in Hyderabad in 2006. While dropping his daughter off to college, he used to see the changing landscape in the surrounding villages of Narsingi, Puppalaguda and Manikonda. Anand, who liked the houses of these villages and used to sketch them, recalls, “The tiled houses in a village are built by carpenters who are not educated but they would create structures whose precision, design and beauty is unmatchable. I grew up in such a house and now things were changing rapidly here in the city. I wondered if I could create a body of work which connects these two environments.”

Anand thrives on learning and his life demonstrates that one is never old to learn. He did his post graduation in Visual Arts from Mysore University when he was 45 and learnt Sanskrit at 55. Content is what matters, says Anand, “One needs to have depth in a subject. In my art too, it is not technique or subject but content that draws people in.”

Abodes of Admirations by Anand Saastry will be exhibited from February 2 to February 6 at the State Art Gallery in Kavuri Hills.