Balancing creativity and eccentricity

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The price of art is life. And I am not exaggerating one bit.

The price that any art extracts from its practioners is so heavy, that it makes me wonder whether it is worth it. But people, who pursue the arts, do so despite all odds. For every artist across the board has varying degree of madness that sometimes waxes and wanes and in a way defines the various periods and phases of the artistic journey. And it is posterity that takes a call on how successful the parts of the journey were. But then as one of my favourite authors George Bernard Shaw said in Man and Superman, “All progress is made due to the unreasonable man.”
Often creativity and eccentricity go hand in hand. Some of them are selfish and egoistical too. But all of them are genuinely different. Parallel to their need to express their creativity, is the need to share the manifestation of that expression. Otherwise how can they even want and expect to hold the undivided attention of hundreds and thousands in a darkened auditorium?
It is death for artistes if the motivations of their creativity are not understood. To many, appreciation has come not a day too soon. Perhaps that is why they value it more and fight to retain it — sometimes going to extreme lengths. Some of the artistes have withdrawn. For others, the need to share has become even more acute. For every artiste who touches success, there are thousands who die unsung.
There is a miniscule minority of artists who are able to think on diverse levels and create anew. One artist whose creative genius traverses various art forms is Naresh Kapuria. He is able to think at various levels and paint beautifully, sculpt, design fabulous sets for theatre and dance, landscape stunning gardens etc. Like a misunderstood genius, his work has been appreciated across the world, far more than in India. He has been awarded with the Chevalier de’ Arts and letters by the French government, one of the highest recognitions in the field of art in France, Award of Excellence from the Romanian government, the Order of the Crown from the government of Belgium, the Chares Wallace Trust Award UK and the Trienniale of India Award.
His ongoing show of wooden reliefs in New Delhi aptly titled Return from the Gdansk Museum — Untold Stories, is part of his phase that began about four years ago. The exhibition first opened at the Galeria Autorska Jana Suity at Krakow, followed by a display at the prestigious Gdansk Museum, Poland.
In somber blacks and deep browns, juxtaposed with shimmering gold, bronze and antique copper, the reliefs are a beautiful insight into the artist’s mind. There is an interesting work where he has even used resin for an almost limpid creation of faces so near and yet so far. The inherent dignity and depth of the wood, and the elegance he bestows with his carving on the hard ebony and sheesham is moving. “In my opinion, stories are being created constantly: Each unique and behind the visible face, is another story, the one which is untold... My canvases of burnt relief work revolve around these untold stories, which die a silent death with the body and remain hidden forever. Like turning the chapters of a book, my work can be witnessed portraying a collection of such stories. Every heart has a story, and the revelation of this story exposes the true nature of the person, the most ordinary being could turn into a star if his untold story was not limited to himself,” says Kapuria.
When I interact with artists, it reaffirms my faith that the loneliness, the anguish, the pain, the sleepless nights, the outpouring of emotions, the backbone of intellect, the trepidation of creation, the insecurity of success are all worth it, maybe not for our times, but for posterity — for it is indeed a quest and a journey that doesn’t end with life. For who then would tell these stories that lie buried in our hearts and define us and keep them safe for times to come…