Thota Vaikuntam : Art Alive Master Series
B Narsing Rao, Jagdish Mittal, H.A. Anil Kumar, Dr. Alka Pande
This book traces the evolution of the iconic Telangana woman that Vaikuntam beautifully makes in his paintings. His quest to paint the perfect Telangana woman is still on. Besides his works, the book reveals the most unknown facts of Vaikuntam's life and includes images of some of his rarely seen and amazing charcoal drawings and etchings as well as selection of his new works specially done for the retrospective.
B Narsing Rao is a painter, filmmaker, photographer, writer, actor and heritage activist. His multi-faceted interests and expertise have taken him around the country and abroad for lectures, performances, filming and in an advisory capacity. He wrote the story and screenplay, co-directed the music, played the lead part and was the director for Telugu film Rangula Kala, which won him two awards. Jadish Mittal is a painter, an erudite scholar and a leading authority on Indian Art. He has given numerous lectures and contributed to art journals and encyclopedias on Indian paintings, handicrafts and folk arts. He is on the Governing Board of South Zone Cultural Centre and a founder member of INTACH, besides other cultural organisations. He is a passionate collector of Indian miniatures and decorative arts and is the Founding and Principal Trustee of "Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art" which he and his wife set up a few years ago.
Jagdish Mittal is a recipient of the Padma Shri award from the President of India in 1990, for his contribution to Indian art.
H.A. Anil Kumar is an artist, art historian and a writer. He has been writing on contemporary visual art and South Indian films since 1992 and has written, edited and co-authored books, papers and art columns for both academic and popular publications in both Kannada and English. He has also curated art exhibitions and lectured on art appreciation at various schools and cultural centres. He is a recipient of the Unesco-Aschberg scholarship and has attended the Curating Contemporary Art Programme at the Royal College of Art, London with a Charles Wallace India Trust Award.
Dr. Alka Pande is an art historian, writer and cultural expert. She is Consultant Arts Advisor and Curator at Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre in Delhi, Reader Dept. of Fine Arts Punjab University and a visiting faculty at several cultural institutions in India. She has many research publications and books to her credit, the latest being "Ardhnarishvara - Ancient Image Modern Identity" published by Rupa and Company in 2004. Alka Pande has curated numerous art exhibitions, more prominent amongst which are 'Borderless Terrain' and 'The Margi & the Desi".