RAMESH TEKAM – GOND ARTIST of MADHYA PRADESH

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Ramesh Tekam has been painting for nineteen years now. Most of his works centre on the elephant. In the Museum of Mankind at IGRMS, his huge blue elephant instantly captures the visitor’s eye. In his childhood Ramesh saw wild elephants in the forests around Patangarh. He finds it fascinating that these same elephants can be stroked once they are tamed. Most of his canvases carry the image of the elephant in its tranquil state.

When Ramesh first came to Bhopal in 1989, he took on all kinds of jobs to make ends meet. Jangarh Singh Shyam was impressed by his powerful strokes and bold use of colour and suggested that he make it a habit to paint every day.

As a child, Ramesh was wonderstruck when he came to know that Verrier Elwin was his aunt’s husband. He didn’t know exactly what Verrier Elwin had done, but the reverence in his father’s voice when he spoke of the great anthropologist convinced him of his uncle’s greatness.

Ramesh at one stage worked in J. Swaminathan’s house, and when the artist said to him, as he often did, “you concentrate on your painting – I am there to take care of you,” he would be encouraged and put more energy into his work. When he worked in IGRMS on a daily wage basis, he was sent to other cities to conduct painting workshops, which gave him the opportunity to take his culture to others. His greatest joy was to see children from other communities imbibing Gond art.

With his bold strokes and use of vibrant colour Ramesh Tekam paints the different species of animals that he saw while he was growing up. He fills up the figures in his paintings with the beehive or paddy motif.