Curator Ina Puri looks at rescuing folk symbolisms as a connective tissue for a buoyant art market. By Rinku Ghosh
Group art shows are not really an exception in town. But when a sizeable crowd gathers at Aerocity on a rained out Sunday evening, you know the art market is slowly and steadily consolidating its space. And when past masters and emerging talent share space with Indian iconography, motifs and metaphors, you know that the idea of India is never going to be under threat.
Curated by Ina Puri in association with Gallerie Nvya, the collective works are on display at Pullman hotel for the month. Banaras ghats, Indian doorways, nature, people and even pop art with references to trucks, autos and bustling Indians, dancing to new age rhythms and happy on their feet, formed a fluid mosaic.
Thota Vaikuntham’s women with parrots expectedly drew eyeballs as did MF Husain’s British Raj. The latter is a rare combination of known Husain motifs, his horses, men and women — colonial, feudal and Indian — and mass symbols in the same frame. Seldom has a melange of narratives blended so well as they do in this one.
Manu Parekh, of course, let the third eye streak into the Ganga at Banaras and coalesce through strong lines and colours to become a divine efflorescence. Paresh Maity, with his dulcet glow of bright red and blue waters, signifying the polarities of existence, and Sanjay Bhattacharya, opening the soul’s window as it were to a vibrant lotus pool, kept to their oeuvre. Meanwhile, Jaysri Burman’s Sampoorna or Durga/Shakti at homely ease with her children, the most unconditional and honest relationship of a woman, in watercolour, pen and ink, sorted out the intricacy and detail of life around it.
Elaborating on the collection, Puri said she had deftly juxtaposed young expressions with the masters simply because emerging talent was the reason that Indian art is slowly finding its space and reckoning internationally. “It is sad that we always assess Indian art from the point of view of auction prices and the masters who get top billing. But as a whole Indian artists across genres have been able to make a perceptible difference in the way we are regarded. They are also the reason why we make a presence at international art fairs and feature in dedicated auctions. We can only go to a position of power from here. look at the India Art Fair today. It has representation from across the globe and we can proudly say that no SAARC nation has been able to replicate this confluence of narratives.”
She also sees trending artists emerge from the smallest of towns and villages, which makes her upbeat that the bubbling talent pool will keep us alive. “Even greats like Manjit Bawa came from Dhuri and used the local idyll that made his all-Indian figures and cows such stark characters in the universal consciousness. Today Subodh Gupta, who belongs to Bihar, has elevated the pan-India bartan, into an art form. I work a lot with young artists. Some five years ago I had spotted Narayan Chowdhury Sinha at Nalhati and today he is a front-ranker.”
Agreeing that there was a global slump in the art markets, she was happy that the Indian art market was holding despite choppy waters. Puri herself is now working on a project called Gaj Yatra, a series of paintings, artworks and dialogues on the elephant corridors of India. “There are 101 corridors and our most recognisable symbol is under threat. The idea of this series is also to rescue and restore our commonest motif in the collective consciousness as a valued creation. Who doesn’t think of the elephant when you think about IndiaIJ” Pan-India commonality is the thread that strings together this exhibition as well.
Besides, the elephant is related to our mythology and ecology. “Think of the concept of Gajalakshmi, where elephants flanking goddess lakshmi are shown as pouring water from their trunk over her. This aspect, like most other aspects of lakshmi, is representative of prosperity, luck and abundance. The Gajalakshmi motifs are very common in both Hindu and Buddhist iconography. In that sense it is part of the pan India narrative,” she added.
Puri is also working with tribal artists and hopes to mainstream them. “Be it the Bhind or Gond tribals, our folk art has been innovative, contemporary and original. They have sounds from their own land. They have survived on the fringes but today they are being feted in shows in Australia. They need exposure and we certainly should not put them in a bracket.”
Artist Jaysri Burman felt upbeat about the emerging art consciousness of our country. “Today art appreciation is at a level where people even want their walls to talk a certain language. Be it prints of masters or affordable art by young artists, it is the sensibility that counts,” she said. But for art to break its elitism, she argued for government patronage to art museums. “We just do not need to have a museum with the Gaitonde, Souza or Raza on the walls. What we need is a biographic journey of the artist’s evolution and an understanding of his body of work. We need centres dedicated to legends to understand their story and influences, educative and inspiring. This way of communication can undoubtedly boost art appreciation in the country.”
This show is aptly called the Monsoon Show, symbolising fresh bursts of creativity and movements. “The monsoon is associated with fertility too. And imagination is always fertile,” said Puri.