Importance of dialogue between the artists and the public was the core of discussion at Tulika, a symposium on art. Team Viva reports
It has been always pondered upon how to make art accessible to the common man. At Tulika, an art symposium organized by Art Tree in the capital city recently, the discussion went to a deeper lever. The focus was on the role of artists to initiate a dialogue with the public and to create ‘public art’. the symposium touched on liberal art and also discussed on taking art beyond galleries.
In the discussion ‘liberal art, a fine balance and Indian dream - moderated by Sanjeeta Datta artists Seema Kohli, Satish Gupta and Jagannath Panda spoke on the importance of dialogues between artists and the public. On artistic license Kohli said that art is something created by the artist for himself. “I paint for myself. I express myself through my works. When I choose to paint I choose to express my feeling. My art is my language. That is how I reach out to others. This is how I am telling the society what I am. Artistic license is a hypothetical term,” she said.
Artistic license has a limited role said Satish Gupta. “For me art gets inspired by culture, not by techniques. For me art is a form of internalisation, I express my internal self through it. Art, many times, comes out of necessity. An artist creates a painting or a sculpture to communicate with the audience and that is essential,” he said. A painter and sculptor his works have a deep engagement with mysticism and Zen spirit. On liberal art and on whether we need neutral themes Gupta said that we must understand that we have a long tradition, which is deeply rooted to the ground, not superficial. Kohli said that art can’t be intimidating. “We can put it into animation, we can put into anything which is creative. There is no need to label art. The moment art is out of the hands of the artists, it’s the others; the people, who name them. For an artist it’s all creations,” she said.
Jagannath Panda said that the art should reach out to the population. A contemporary Indian painter and sculptor Panda records the tensions brought about by social change. On the need to establish a liberal art education system Gupta said that familiarising with art depends more on sensibility than on education.The symposium hosted three discussion sessions and offered insights into the topics – folk art and liberal art. It was organised with a focus to have an interaction between the artists and art lovers and appreciators. Each artist has his own area of creativity and I wanted them to talk about their views and approach on it,” said Pragati Agarwal. Art tree is an initiative by Pragati Agarwal to promote many aspects and nuances of various forms of art.