Veteran bureaucrat and TDB president Jayakumar returns to his original passion for painting

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An art exhibition titled ‘Glimpses’ by former Chief Secretary of Kerala and Travancore Devaswom Board president K. Jayakumar, at Mauve Art Gallery, Vanchiyoor, in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. The exhibition is set to open to public at 5 p.m. on Thursday. | Photo Credit: Nirmal Harindran

Former Chief Secretary and current Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) president K. Jayakumar has played multiple roles in life. He has made his mark as an administrator and is rated among the best lyricists of his generation, with many of his critically acclaimed Malayalam movie songs bearing the earmarks of classic status.

After a hiatus prompted to some extent by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Jayakumar has returned to his original passion for painting, picking up easels, paints, palette knives and brushes.

His 25th painting exhibition, Glimpses, at the Mauve Art Gallery on June 18, marks Mr. Jayakumar’s return to Thiruvananthapuram’s art scene after four years.

The exhibition features 22 paintings, including 15 new works and a handful of older canvases selected from his earlier collections.

Speaking to the Hindu, Mr. Jayakumar said he was eager to know how people will respond to the paintings born in the “cognitive privacy of creativity and the physical seclusion of the artist’s studio”. Mr. Jayakumar paints at home.

Mr. Jayakumar said Kerala appeared more inclined to appreciate literary pursuits. “Painting seems to occupy the second row”, he said.

“There is a question of artistic literacy. Kerala is highly literate when it comes to literature, but we have perhaps lagged behind a little in appreciating visual art,” he said.

According to Mr. Jayakumar, viewers often approach paintings expecting a fixed meaning, whereas visual art communicates through colour, composition, form and experience.

Mr. Jayakumar was relatively late to the world of painting. The muse of oil painting called on him rather belatedly at the age of 50. Mr. Jayakumar’s years as a bureaucrat in New Delhi were marked by g