India is going through the throes of a strange, albeit lopsided growth in the visual arts sector. On one end of the spectrum is the abnormal boom in prices, on the other is a certain derivative quality that has found its way into the art itself in the last half-a-decade. This derivative quality, that was virtually the hallmark of paintings done in the 70s and early 80s, had seen a paradigm shift in the mid 80s that continued right up to the early part of this decade.
This shift was a recognition and assimilation of the regional identity, and was sensitised to holding a mirror to contemporaneity. These modifications are important from the point of view of the contextualisation of the Indian art scene in its global perspective. Those who are identified as “masters” today have been inseparable from these shifts, and in some cases, even been its catalysts. The Progressive Artists Group being a case in point. For the artists who formed it, including luminaries like M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Krishan Khanna, etc, not only carved their own niche but also held the lantern up to illuminate the path for scores of others. This went further than a mere trend. It was actual history being written — or rather painted. However, given the fact that there is little or virtually no research being undertaken to understand this phenomenon, it would be of immense historical importance to view the situation from an overall perspective.
One of the biggest problem areas is the paucity of contemporary art museums and art institutions. For larger and serious shows, there is National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, with branches in Bengaluru or Mumbai, which have been functioning as repositories of impressive collections and mounting shows of historical importance. However, there is room for smaller institutions that can be designed to be more interactive and take into account smaller collections. These can take into account, craft and tribal art collections, and play the role of sensitising audiences towards the arts. Younger audiences need to be targeted to become friends of museums.
Then there are the centres like the Lalit Kala Akademis in Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi, Lucknow, Bhubaneswar, Shimla, and a centre proposed in Shillong, which have been doing a lot of hands-on-work, working directly with artists and providing space and studios at the grassroot level and also representing the country in international festivals, biennales and triennials. In principle, they are run with the idea that artists should have some controlling power, but in actuality, it is far from this utopian idea, if their selection of private galleries, artists and curators — both during the Commonwealth and Venice biennale — is any indication.
On the other hand, there has been a lethal mushrooming of commercial galleries, whose focus is the client pockets and little else. They don’t play the erstwhile role of galleries i.e. to nurture artists. In the bargain, they also build their collections a là Dhoomimal, Kumar and other older galleries. At least some of the galleries like Art Alive and Delhi Art Gallery are attempting to plug the vaccuum of writing on the arts with their serious and lavish publications.
Then there is the complete lack of space in the print media for serious art criticism, resulting in a peculiar situation. There is creation of art, there is sale of art, but there is no contextualisation or serious criticism that can position the art in the global space and connect. This needs to be explored in its myriad dimensions and its impact over time should be studied. The idea should be to trace this journey to explore and understand the role of the artists, the galleries, the museums and critics. This lack of space in national media for art criticism has resulted in the breakdown of serious evaluation of merit. The result being that society columns are used as watermarks for evaluations. But this is also like the proverbial egg and chicken syndrome — there is a paucity of serious writers on arts and so no there is point in devoting space for the arts.
Having seen this from the vantage point of being an art critic/writer, followed by training in art curating and now as an artist — one can say categorically that all these factors are long term problems and need long term approaches if Indian art has to take the next leap forward towards global positioning.
Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist