The art of Kerala mural painting, dates back to the 9th century, although art lovers believe that the tradition of painting on walls goes back to prehistoric times. Rock paintings were first found in the Anjanad valley of the Idukki district in southwest India, near the Malabar Coast. Temples in many parts of India have murals dating back to different periods in history, and a study of the medium is a valuable tool in gaining understanding of Kerala’s culture and traditions.

Discovering Kerala Mural Paintings

The first westerner to see real Kerala murals was a Portuguese explorer on the voyages of Vasco da Gama, who was awestruck – and not a little afraid – by the paintings on the walls of a Hindu temple in India. The paintings were frescoes, a type of art executed on walls or ceilings, whose name derives from the Italian word “affresca”, or Latin for “fresh.” Murals in the Kerala tradition are found all over India in places such as Mattancheri, where the walls of the palace chambers are covered with frescoes. The murals in the palace’s Staircase Room focus on the Hindu god Siva as half male and half female, and include mural paintings of the ten incarnations of Vishnu.

Traditional Practices of Kerala Mural Art

Practitioners of traditional Kerala mural art follow the texts of the Tantra-samucchaya, which was a treatise on art and temple architecture written in the 15th century. A later text, the Shilparatna, written a century later, specifies the correct color schemes for artists to use to achieve balance and rhythm. The roots of Kerala mural art lie in Dravidian influences, a fully-developed ritual in which the artist sketches outlines with powder and then sprinkles and fills in the outlines with different colors.

Keeping Kerala Murals Alive

Modern-day artist Suresh Muthukulam, who comes from the Indian state of Kerala’s Alappuzha district, grew up exposed to the magnificent murals in his region. Muthukulam chose to focus his art on the medium, and experimented with new mural ideas during an assignment for India’s celebration of 50 years of independence. The artist and his team created a series of eight murals, each depicting an important moment in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. “We did not portray as such from available photographs. We used our imagination and logical additions to recreate the scenes,” said Muthukulam, speaking after the exhibition. The works are now on permanent display as part of the Gandhi Museum Collection in New Delhi.

Modern Uses

Sadaanandan is another modern, established Kerala mural artist who takes the innovative approach of transferring mural art from walls to smaller canvases, without compromising the beauty or intensity of the classic art form. Across the world, artists have kept alive the tradition of Kerala painting with the creation of frescoes to lighten drab cityscapes. Murals have been used in politics to keep causes alive, in places such as Mexico where the “Mexican muralism” movement used mural painting as a means of social protest. Mural artists, or “muralists” as they prefer to be known, live and work in most of the big cities including Toronto, New York and London, spreading the beauty of Kerala mural painting to brighten their surroundings.

(Top Image Source: http://ssubbanna.sulekha.com/blog/post/2009/01/the-legacy-of-chitrasutra-eleven-the-murals-of-kerala.htm)

Image: Gandhi under the Banyan Tree – part of the exhibition for India’s 50th year of independence
(Source: http://www.keralamurals.com/mural-paintings/suresh-muthukulam-masterstrokes.htm)