Apt creations?
Are visual arts communicating the discontent of the society
Every art historian avers that art of any period reflects the socio-cultural ethos of the age.
One wonders whether one can posit this axiom for contemporary art, for in this age of protest against corruption and political apathy, there does not seem to be concomitant art activity by any significant individual or collective that can jolt the consciousness of the people.
Art has always reflected not only as the voice of the people but has also acted as an important medium through which a people preserve the memory of their protests against perceived or real oppression or it mirrors the discontent and disaffection within a society.
One has to only look at the works of Willie Bester made during and after the apartheid regime in South Africa to understand the impact of art in rousing the consciousness of the international community as well as a monument to the atrocities heaped upon a people.
In India too, the left people’s movement from 1950’s in Telengana to the wave of idealistic naxalism that infected the youth of Bengal in the 1970’s inspired some truly influential artworks ranging from those by Chittaprosad to Bikash Bhattacharjee.
Post 1984 and in the 1990’s too there were a wave of cultural activities that tried to promote communal harmony, highlighting the acts of commission and omission by the state as well as political parties. The popularity of Sufi music is but one by-products of this cultural movement that attests to the enduring influence of a concentrated effort of the artist community.
A cursory overview of the current art scenario reveals numerous engagements with general or specific contemporary issues like globalisation, urban alienation, local traditional knowledge systems but there does not seem to be any grand anti-establishment or pro-protest discourse running through art production. Are we to assume that visual arts reflect the market rather than the discontent of those who make up the market?
— Dr Seema Bawa is an art historian, curator
and critic
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