Madras Art Movement’s SG Vasudev on his new-found love for abstract collage

The latest series of abstract collages by SG Vasudev, one of the founder-members of Chennai’s Cholamandal Artists Village, takes inspiration from his past work

SG Vasudev stoops over a blank canvas. This time, he is not armed with a brush. Instead, the artist works with tiny, incongruous, stray pieces of paper that were once part of magazines, catalogues and notebook covers, and a trusty tube of glue. The veteran artist pieces them together to form a figure that can only be described as Vasudev-esque, completed by white and silver ink strokes. A woman (perhaps) with her arms outstretched, half her face on a stray piece of paper while the other half in ink, lamp in hand, is accompanied by a dog. While disjointed patterns form her clothing, her body comes to life through line drawings. There is no narrative, for it is simply a collage.

In an experimental display titled Drawing on Memories at Forum Art Gallery, Vasudev — an integral part of the influential Madras Art Movement — is celebrated for his drawings, paintings and copper reliefs. At this show he presents a series of collages that depict his willingness to explore new, and sometimes surprising, playgrounds.

The isolation and stillness of the pandemic steered Vasudev, one of the founder-members of the renowned Cholamandal Artists’ Village in Chennai, to dip his toes in this unlikely medium. During a walkthrough he explains how he starting drawing during the lockdown period. “It so happened that one day, I received a wedding invitation that had striking gold and silver lines which led me to my first collage. I pasted portions of the card onto my own drawings creating some interesting visuals.”

The most random pieces make for cohesive renditions: a tiny bit of an American flag, one half of a wedding photograph, the textured pattern of a shoe featured in a fashion magazine, or even a disjointed nose. “One sees collages done by masters like Henri Matisse when he could no longer paint due to old age. Maybe, I am also on that path,” he says with a smile. 

In a way, it all started with cartoons and caricatures, Vasudev adds. While this series can be called “a lockdown project”, Vasudev’s interest in cartoons and caricatures preceded his formal training in art at the Government College of Arts which began in 1960. The college was then helmed by KCS Panicker, he says, who was always encouraging of crafts apart from formal art practices.

He admits with a chuckle, “When I started, I thought it would be easy. But it’s actually quite complicated.” Unlike popular belief, a collage is not always static. Even motion can be depicted through patterns and alignment.  

Does he have a form in mind while putting the pieces together? “Not necessarily,” he says, adding, “I would know the general shapes. What pieces I like, I cut and keep. After starting work on a collage, I went into images of my own artworks in catalogues and books, and started incorporating them.” In a way, this translation lends a new lease of life to his past work.