By Jugneeta Sudan

National award (Karnataka L.K.A) winning artist Vitesh Naik, who began from humble beginnings in Jan 1974, has been awarded the 2021-22 Pollock–Krasner Foundation grant. Considering his passion and perseverance, the outcome has been most satisfying. It began with a sketch of his teacher in history class for which he was suspended for 3 months. Naik bore the punishment without protest. But the smoldering passion lit in school burns unabated. Here are some excerpts from a conversation with the artist:

Vitesh Naik: “My temperament is such that I cannot stick to particular influence for a long time as I feel it may limit me and hamper my growth. Each day comes with new things, ideas, views, people which stimulate me to provide stunning outputs.”

From oils to etchings, Naik now experiments with mixed media. Figurative art was always prominent, but slowly he has incorporated floral motifs and varied textures from his stint in the Middle East. Signs and symbols have emerged, lending gravity to his work. The viewer certainly completes his work, and Naik delights in interpretations refracted through different minds. He immensely enjoys the challenge and uncertainty of etchings, “Till the last moment you never know what will emerge. A single wrong line can spoil the entire work. But in mix media there is freedom with lines, textures and colors.” With changing monetary conditions, monochromatic frames gave way to a burst of color, enveloping his work in varied hues.

Vitesh Naik: “The thinking man remains a recurrent motif in my work, ever questioning his drives and choices and the things he chooses to align with. Besides, my soul derives great satisfaction from connecting concept to form and color. The harmony and aesthetics lingers in my memory long after it is completed.”

The painting titled Kalyug showcases vignettes of an illusionary world mired by greed, lust and betrayal. Involved in a perpetual race, characters ride the tortoise; a proud pig addresses an assembly; and a brawny decapitated man stands at the mercy of a villainous woman. In contrast another woman amidst the chaos gives birth to a child. The king of hearts lies trampled and the jester personifying an amalgamation of poet, saint and artist is carelessly cast aside. Many such motifs inform the artworks of the artist in an exploration of cartography of consciousness, grappling with hidden shadows consuming the collective conscious.

A complex sensibility is at play in his paintings. The decorative and visual narrative twine to relay theatre of humanity. Human figures detonate from pastel grayish blue backgrounds. Animals on his canvas are not just good enough to eat but metaphors heavily accentuated with meaning. His artwork Bitter Truth, personifies fear, greed and hypocrisy in society, a careless and negligent life lived against a backdrop of death and mortality.

An early self–portrait of the artist, Temptation, with brush and palette in hand, showcases three dogs centre-stage, with sharpened teeth and lolling tongues. Greed and lust in the artwork combine with the figure of a sensuous woman; sexual fantasy fringes the frame. An older image of the artist in one corner looks on at play of desire in his life. Much of his earlier work interrogates the power and powerlessness of the male body, stemming from man’s own needs and desires, social pressure, advancing technology and impositions from state machinery.  The paintings Lust, Truth never Dies, Hope and Learned Fool are good examples in this context. 

Vitesh Naik: “I see myself in the crowds, in bars, the man in the street. I am forever searching for myself in the faces milling in the market around me. The inner voices behind the masks, the beautiful, the cruel, the naughty, the sexy, the liar, the conspirer, the betrayer lure me non-stop to paint. An unceasing quest for the SELF.”

Undoubtedly reflection and introspection permeates many of Naik’s self-portraits. Besides that, in many works he impersonates other characters on the frame. His work Me and My Inner Friends is a deeply contemplative work where he pinpoints desires, needs and compulsions driving him in the form of popped up masks around his face. Thereafter he is the clown in Tears behind the Laugh. The fool in the clown represents innate, inviolate and primordial innocence which sees clearly. Another work which elicits pathos and amusement is Three Friends. Suave men with pink lips present an assured face to the world. But squeezed between the three on either side of the central figure are two animal faces. One ridicules and is satirical while the other manipulates with suspicion and doubt.

A burlesque comedy delineates the interiority of characters, a Shakespearean parade of human personalities and behavioral motifs which draw the viewer into a deep engagement with themselves. Hedonistic lifestyles mark the artwork, The Illusive World. Pronounced hypocritical patterns dot the painting, Falling Values and Hypocrisy. The donkey represents society mounted on which four people carry a palanquin housing a golden crown. An upside down man hangs freestyle with his head inside a commode.  Politicians devoid of any merit are eulogized by the masses. The artist executes varied expressions and psychic temperaments with ease. Dualities like good and evil, wisdom and folly, greed and charity cast crisscross light and dark tones across spectacles of life on his canvas.  

Vitesh Naik: “In the entire universe man is most creative, intelligent & weird creature created by God. Since his birth he expresses his psychic evolution through the language of art.”

His passion for the human story is perennial, which parlays into his religious paintings too. Nonetheless, the focus is not on the Gods but human consciousness and human condition derived from free-will. What renders the One Amongst You Will Betray Me, utterly riveting is that the central figure of Christ is portrayed with his back to the viewer in a red robe, while the torsos of disciples are cast directly in front of the viewer. Contorted countenances, twisted brows and shady eyes create a dystopian coterie, much to be reckoned with each person’s mind and soul. Messenger of Love and Peace lays mutilated, oozing blood and pus on pale skin, while fresh pink flowers bloom unhindered and a rooster struts across the frame. The flying Hanuman with Dronagiri mountain in his extended hands is a recurring theme in his artworks. Beneath Hanuman stands the artist himself in a pink/ grey shirt beseeching the Lord for strength and vitality.

Vitesh Naik: “In modern times humans have become slaves to machines. This has not only hijacked our inner peace but also rendered human bodies weak. Many more external forces destroy human creative energy.”

In an age dominated by technology and mechanization, the artist focuses on the vulnerability of massive muscular forms against the constant buzzing and whirring of machine parts. Engrossed Man is indicted by external forces beyond his control, shattering his inner reverie, creating a perpetual sense of restlessness and unease. The once powerful human signified by prominent musculature by the artist now is fragmented and muted in the wake of constant metallic impositions.

In another ironical work, he portrays a group of serious men listening to a pig, their senses bombarded by bombastic language of hyperbole. A stack of unopened books rests in a corner. His painting Till 3 am is a commentary on vox populi. On a discriminatory note Naik points out, cultural influences and peer pressure are influences from outside, but ego morphs them into inner desires. It takes much reflection, interior dialogue to discern and distill the truth.

 Vitesh Naik: “The pale grayish-blue background in most of my paintings signifies the vastness of sky. All human activity is happening under one roof and the inverted dome is witness to the true human story. The microcosm of Goa in my artwork stands for global human condition.”

In the end Vitesk Naik’s art is quintessentially Goan, infused with motifs and symbols from his homeland. Statue of the hypnotist Abbe Faria surfaces in many paintings, along with coconut trees, white washed churches and taverns. Sartorial sense of the artist is something to look out for, the way in which he dresses his figures on the canvas. The shirt and dress prints for men and women are creative and intricately designed. Flying animals and humans bring in a Chagall quality to pastoral settings and old heritage clocks; magnified honey bees, cats and pugs morph frames to surrealist Salvadorian planes.

The Taverns of Goa is a popular series on Canson Montval 300gsm paper. Heavily populated by men intoxicated by booze in dimly lit rooms, the artist portrays them a merry group.  Back slapping, laughing and singing they slouch in watering holes traversing the territory of their homeland. Many are confessional and yet others fantasize surrounded by naked women on high bar stools. With not a care in the world, they engage in gambling, egged on by women, a respite from hard relentless world which awaits them outside the safe walls of their favorite tavern. The artist carves them meticulously in the moment, wherein suspended in time they live a hundred fold lives.

Finally it is the soft gentle blue light, the luminescence in background which caresses the human saga, according it a dignified claim.

 Jugneeta Sudan is our Art Review Editor.

All artwork featured is copyright to Vitesh Naik and cannot be reproduced without his permission. It is taken from his Facebook page and used here for editorial purposes only. To explore more of his art visit him here.