Born in Kerala in 1945, Achuthan  Kudallur is regarded among the most respected Indian abstractionists. A student of Madras Art Club which functioned within the Government College of Arts, Chennai, he went on to win the State Lalit Kala Academi award and later the National Lalit Kala Academy award too. A civil engineer turned Malayalam writer who later shifted to abstract painting in search of a better medium for self expression, he now has 20 solo shows to his credit. Achutan was invited to participate in several International Exhibitions like Homage to French Poet Arthur Rimbaud in India and France in 1992 and the Nehru Centenary Exhibition in India and Czechoslovakia in 1989. He exhibited at the Biennale at Bhopal in 1988 and 1990, the VII Triennale in New Delhi in 1991 and the 3rd Asian Art Show in Fukoka, Japan. He has also participated in 'The New South' exhibition of artists from South India at the Defina Gallery, London and the Sotheby's India Auction in London. In 1991, he was commissioned by Air India and served as a commissioner for the 10th Indian International Triennial in 2001. His paintings are in institutional collections of the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, the Chandigarh Museum and the Glenbarra Museum, Japan. 

Colour is the overpowering force behind his paintings. He does not attempt to narrate a story through his works. He lives and works in Chennai.