Among the things I can immodestly claim to have pioneered were two arts portals Pioneerarts.com and Enkitaarts.com.
Among the things I can immodestly claim to have pioneered were two arts portals Pioneerarts.com and Enkitaarts.com. Both the portals were envisaged as a one-stop place for buying art with an extensive art gallery, an arts consultancy to help create site specific works and manage collections and most importantly a segment for a vibrant and lively art magazine. Unfortunately they were so before their time — 1999 and 2007 respectively — that they didn’t go the way they were envisaged.
Pioneerarts, launched by the Pioneer newspaper, went bust along with the dot com debacle of those times despite best of intensions and Enkitaarts too folded up just when the arts boom started losing steam. It was the dream project of the French CEO Gregoire du Lasterie du Saillant and he was as heartbroken as I was. It was really sad for these dream projects to be shattered.
So when Mojarto.com, an initiative of the NDTV invited me to curate a show for them, all these memories came flooding back and since I have complete conviction in the workability of the medium I enthusiastically agreed. I chose abstract works for the curation — abstracts being not only my chosen style, but for the sheer genius of the artists who work in this genre. I have called the show, which is ongoing, Expanding Metaphors, for its raison de etre is to showcase art from the region that is modern in its form and content and of course expand the metaphors of creativity and transport the viewer to explore vistas of their own minds and hearts. The idea is that the onlooker should revel in the art, hear the melody, dance to the rhythm and be intellectually moved by the visual manifestation of it all!
I find that abstract imagery is replete with a thousand meanings. It is the only genre where with your perception and growth, the painting takes on a new meaning every time one looks at it. I personally find figurative works very intrusive in a confined residential space. It is like living with another being! In office situations or professional spaces, figurative art tends to look too regional and sometimes even dated. Since it is also my chosen idiom for my paintings and hence it is closest to my head and heart — this was the trigger point to share the works of some of the most creative abstract artists of our times.
My attempt is to dispel the notion that abstracts are hard to understand. For abstract art needs no demystification to understand. It is like saying that music must have words in order for the listener to understand it. Like music, abstraction speaks a language that is global and has a global connect. Each one of our classical dance styles — be it Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi — all have pure dance sequences and compositions that create rhythmic patterns that are akin to abstraction. Ditto for traditional, folk and tribal dance forms. We in India have a tradition of nirgun and nirakaar, or formlessness. In literature too, poets like Kabir have taken this formlessness to a level where the poet is hooking into formless Universal Light and invoking it. I feel abstraction is the visual manifestation of this formlessness. It is not region specific and high quality abstract art speaks an international language that is completely contemporary yet rooted in the Indian context. This is its innate strength.
I feel that collectors need no introduction to “understand” abstraction for they have seen, experienced and collected works of artists in the international arena and they understand the deep roots of Indian abstracts. It is the neo-collectors who are still at the nascent stage where they are just about graduating from being buyers to collectors who need to be explained the nuances of abstract works. And it is not difficult — all it needs is to be viewed with the heart, the mind will follow and make the connect effortlessly. Anyone who has come to the point of acquiring art for the sheer reason of its own sake comes with proclivity and inclination towards art anyway and usually has refined aesthetics. And if it means getting art that is also good long-term investment, then it is a win-win for all.
I feel that all the other six artists who are part of this show are the most important abstract artists of this generation who are very closely linked to our performing arts and their art is philosophical in its essential perspective. The works are aesthetic in the selection of colour, there is a positive energy that underlines each work and has the ability to energise any space they are placed in — be it personal or professional.
All the artists are featured in this show are no green horns but bring long years to their canvas’ in terms of the time spent in creating and experiencing art and yet have a freshness in their idiom that is so effervescent and vivacious that few can remain untouched by the sheer beauty of their creative impulses. I feel when Indian artists paint abstracts, they are speaking from a point and position of strength for they have a rootedness, a history, an experiential connection with other forms of art that leads them to create works that reflect the larger canvas of life.
The joyous colours that are the hallmark of Niren Sengupta’s works are bright yet subtle and he is a rarity of sorts where he is in the throes of coming from a platform of figurative to the abstract. Anita Kulkarni’s lifelong connection with classical dance bestows a rare fluidity to her work that sets it apart. Shridhar Iyer’s works are essentially a sum total of his spiritual journey, very masculine and stark in their colour palette but completely international quality in their approach. Vilas Kulkarni’s ascetic perspective ensures a spiritual quest to his paintings that just seems simple on the first glance but in actuality is layered with profound meaning. Nupur Kundu’s work is an amazing balance of the tandava and the lasya or male and female energies that is almost primordial in its manifestation. Manisha Gawade focuses on inter-personal relationships and her work is an aesthetic blend of several types of techniques garnered over the years to make her point in no uncertain way.
The reason I have included my works in my own curatorial project is because for one I am a rarity — a trained curator who also paints and writes on art — I must be only one of a kind at least in India! But seriously, I have always attempted to extend and expand the metaphors of the artistic horizons and its success or failure is for all to experience and observe. I use metallic colours as a metaphor for purity and my interest in rarely seen jewel-like colours is a life-long commitment and humble obeisance to the unnamed Indian textile artisan.
Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com
