Conversation is civilised speech. It is more purposeful than chatter, more humane than gossip and more intimate than debate. One of the Capital city's oldest gallieries, Gita Art Gallery, which recently reopened as GAG Moderne in collaboration with Empowerment N.G., organised the inaugural edition of  “Underground Talks”.

Manish Pushkale in conversation with Ashok Vajpeyi, a noted poet, essayist, literary-cultural critic and administrator, talked on the “role of an artist in today’s time".

Underground Talks are a series of conversations between artist Manish Pushkale and an eminent guest from the art scene each month. These talks focus on subjects of burning interest to the public, giving the creative fringe of society an opportunity to articulate intelligent, opinion in the mainstream, to foster learning, inspiration and provoke conversations that matter.

Talking on the role of an artist in today’s world, Ashok Vajpeyi said, “There was a time when artists would speak up for the nation. But now the artist community has gone numb. Nowadays, artists are campaigning for the political parties so as to get a Padma award. This means you are involved in the thing. Then why not speak up? The important thing for an artist is to create things, but you need to show some morale responsibilities towards the nation as well.” He feels art cannot leave the notion of creating. “Basically, art is the notion of making impossible things possible. The day you start believing that you don’t matter than gradually your creativity will come to an end,” he adds, saying, “Art is a spiritual form of creativity, one should notice things around. Look can be a creative look or an imaginary one. But if you look and don’t notice or vice versa then you cannot be creative”.

Re-launched as “GAG Moderne” earlier this month, the gallery is headed by Neha Talwar and Anirudh Tripathi. Its debut exhibition ‘Paradox of Silence’ curated by NeAnGo studio is a show featuring works of masters like Rameshwar Broota, Manish Pushkale, Manu Parekh, Mona Rai, Amitava Das, Shobha Broota, Hem Raj, Kalicharan Gupta amongst others.  Besides a meticulous display of some of the chosen works of the aforementioned artists, there is a spellbinding installation by NeAnGo Studio as well. This show has now been extended and will now end on April 20.

Formerly this gallery has been a retailer and repository of umpteen contemporary paintings. Established in 1964 by Kuljeet Singh Butalia, it is the oldest private art gallery in the Capital. Butalia’s passion for art led him to not merely showcase but possess paintings of all kinds, be it abstract/semi-abstract form. Having started his journey at a time when art flourished in the Asian region but perhaps, didn’t find many lucrative deals, he revolutionised the modern and contemporary art in India.

After lying dormant for a few years, the gallery is getting reinvented, keeping up with the latest trends of the art market to reach out to a wider audience.