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Rooted in the ethos of his birthplace in Telangana, Thota Vaikuntam’s inspiration stems from his childhood memories and experiences of rural life in the Southern Indian state. The artist’s vibrant and instantly recognizable works represent his appreciation of the grace, strength and beauty of the villagers he was surrounded by growing up, emphasizing their attire and traditional ornamentation. “The intrinsic purity of colour, form and content are evident in all his works, for they are replete with stylised jewel-like figures. The stylisation is a perfect foil to Indian classical dance as the figures seem to dance, as if following their creator in a statuesque movement, reminiscent of temple friezes, except that they are painted!” (A. Raghuvanshi, ‘In Symphony, Thota Vaikuntam and Ananda Shankar Jayant’, The Hindu website, 26 September 2006, accessed July 2022).

In his work, Vaikuntam expresses a preference for colors that exist in nature – kumkum red, ochre, saffron, and green – because of their close connection with rural India. Vaikuntam juxtaposes these colors and the decorative designs from the saris worn by the women of Telangana with the dark complexion, heavy lips and exaggerated features of his subjects. Apart from traditional two-dimensional paintings (lots 579, 580 and 582), Vaikuntam has also rendered his stylized figures on found objects and furniture like writing boxes (lot 583), in unique three-dimensional articulations of his distinctive idiom. By painting different figures on each external surface of the box in lot 583, for example, the artist endows the object with a sculptural quality and a new life, while encouraging viewers to engage with it from various viewpoints, discover each character, and guess at the relationships they share.