INDIA'S SHAME : The Telegraph : DUMBED DOWN NATION

MALVIKA SINGH

And now we are making life miserable for M.F. Husain, the one Indian contemporary painter who put modern Indian art on the map of the world long before the prices went over the roof. I recall Roberto Rosselini, the great Italian film-maker, having many of Husain’s works, as did collectors and museums in Mexico and elsewhere. In those days, S.H. Raza was unheard of, even though he lived in Paris. Today, as Indian art becomes commercial and joins the ranks of international art, India is demeaning its pioneer. Whether you like Husain’s work or not, a democratic nation must protect its citizens against any kind of partisan assault. It is the political leaders who use the vast section of unemployed people and turn them into lumpens by compelling them to act against the law of the land. All the men and occasional women who lead these packs from behind must be hauled over the coals and be made accountable.

The profound silence of the authorities over this is ominous. Husain’s works hang in many government homes and, if I am not mistaken, in the prime minister’s official residence. Industrialists buy his art hoping the resale value will soar. Will any of these exalted men and women, the privileged and fêted, ever stand up and speak out? Or will they hide quietly in their ivory towers, hoping against hope that their silence will protect them? Where are the voices of protest? Where are the strong voices of the privileged and successful, the Tatas, the Mahindras, the Narayanamurthys, the Premjis, the Razas and the Sabavalas, the Dodiyas and the Sheikhs, the institutional buyers and the museum heads of India, the Amartya Sens, the Amitabh Bachchans, the V.P. Singhs and the Gujrals, to name a few? Are they going to allow this country and civilization to be suffocated with this horror and not pressurize our rulers to govern correctly? Will they watch, with their mouths shut, when these same lumpen elements are given the task of demolishing Khajuraho, because a band of people find it vulgar? Have we become a nation of dumbed down, frightened people, devoid of honesty and integrity, overwhelmed by fear?

Forces of anarchy

When Christian priests are hounded and beaten up in front of television cameras by Hindus, and the authority allows those who led the assault to roam free, what is the ethic that the political rulers are endorsing? Both acts are unacceptable. The Hinduism that I know is tolerant, secure, confident of its tenets and as an Indian, I am appalled by the desecration of an ancient, tried and tested way of life.

Our Constitution has enshrined in its pages the many sane and humane norms that are meant to govern India. Successive governments have permitted those norms to be mutilated. One such law permits any two consenting adult individuals, man and woman, to marry. It is legal. But, the authorities that are mandated to protect that law, never seem to protect those who operate within the law and allow the most horrendous assaults to happen. The rulers of India never act with urgency, nor do they commit themselves by speaking out in public, damning such illegal acts. Kings protected their people. Our leaders are failing our modern democracy.

An unwritten, illegal code of conduct has begun to rule India, a parallel lumpen law, akin to the parallel economy! Akin to the authority silently looking the other way, accepting the continuing use of that black money. Policy-makers indulge occasionally in cosmetic surgery, with voluntary disclosure schemes. Our plural civilization is similarly beginning its gory journey backwards, into talibanization. Our benign rulers look on and away! Soon it will not matter whether the rate of growth is 15 per cent or more, because no investor will want to enter an anarchic, rigid and violent land.

INDIA'S SHAME: TOI: A bitter PIL for the art frat

10 May, 2007 l 0904 hrs ISTlPURNIMA SHARMA /TIMES NEWS NETWORK

A few days after a Jaipur magistrate, outraged by photographs of Richard Gere giving a peck to Shilpa Shetty, wanted the international star to be arrested, it was the turn of a judge in Haridwar to order the attachment of painter M F Husain’s property in Mumbai over alleged obscene depiction of Hindu goddesses in his paintings.

Better sense prevailed later when the Supreme Court quashed the arrest warrant against Husain and stayed the proceedings. Of course, there’s been no dearth of creative works that have upset the votaries of our society. MF Husain has been subjected to their ire with his works being vandalised and burnt.

So, once again, is this a case of the moral police seeking publicity through the artist ? Says senior artist Vivan Sundaram, "Twenty years ago, you wouldn’t see matters like this being raked up. Now, this is all a consequence of the mood that has been created by certain fundamentalist groups who claim to uphold Indian values.” The need of the hour, he insists, "is to counter such moves through a responsible judiciary and a greater public opposition that says ‘enough is enough’ . An alertness has to be created to make this lot feel they are a minority."

Adds Neville Tuli, chairman of Osian, "Disrespect for the learning processes and knowledge and escape from any counterforce leads to the growth in the power to abuse. The importance of debate and experimentation for growth and progress is undermined and hence we face this deceit in the name of protecting the hurt of others on a daily basis."

Says art-gallery owner Arun Vadhera, "How can an artist of the stature of MF Husain be subjected to such treatment? There has to be method or a screening system whereby such frivolous PILs are not admitted. We must not allow time and effort to be wasted on such matters." SC lawyer Alpana Poddar shares a similar view. "We must not allow the law to be misused by publicity seekers. Such cases should be dropped immediately.

Even the press must refrain from giving importance to such cases," she says. So, will the formation of a special body that will screen such matters being put up in the court of law, be the answer? "As of now, this is not legally viable. But look at it this way, people who take such matters to court are not ready to be reasonable, so they will not be open to the idea of such a body," she says. However, if one is formed, then it must have representatives from across the board and not necessarily only artists who, many feel, will look at just one view.

"We must have an open forum, an autonomous body of people whom these moral policemen can talk to instead of vandalising works and burning effigies, etc," says theatre person Arvind Gaur, whose play Jinnah was banned sometime ago. "What these people don’t realise is that they are putting a stop to the democratic rights of the people. They must let people decide for themselves about what is right and what is wrong," he says. Gaur gives the example of artworks on Indian temples "and the erotica that ancient literature and paintings are replete with.

Indian society has always given a lot of freedom to the creative arts, so what’s happening now?" he wonders. It was, he says, the British who first imposed restrictions on a play called Neel Darpan in the 1890s. "The law that was made then is what continues to be our yardstick even today" he informs

The Economic Times : Sotheby’s to unveil The Indian Sale in London on May 24

ASHOKE NAG

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, MAY 09, 2007

KOLKATA: Come May 24, top notch auctioneer Sotheby’s will open The Indian Sale in London. The auction includes 166 lots with 150 of them being modern and contemporary collections. 16 lots embrace miniatures and early paintings. The auction is estimated at a total value of £2.7-3.7 million which are lower and the upper estimates.

The sale is fielding a sizeable selection of FN Souza and SH Raza works. The highest priced is a VS Gaitonde Untitled which boasts of an estimate of £300,000-500,000.

Together with the Gaitonde, the cream of estimates are a Souza Head at £100,000-150,000 and an untitled work by the artist which is placed at £50,000-70,000. Three more Souza untitled paintings are placed in the region of £180,000-220,000, £50,000-70,000 and £80,000-100,000. A Souza Landscape in Red is estimated in the range of £30,000-50,000.

There is also a Tyeb Mehta untitled which is valued at £140,000-180,000, a SH Raza untitled which shows a price of £40,000-60,000, K.K. Hebbar’s Search £30,000-50,000 and Ram Kumar untitled £40,000-60,000. The auction also harbours some Husains. Two untitled MF Husains are each pegged at £40,000-60,000, while Husain’s Mother Teresa diptych is estimated in the band of £80,000-100,000.

Bikash Bhattacharjee’s Red Balloon is seen as one of the prime highlights of the auction which reflects an estimate £60,000-80,000. At the same time, Jogen Chowdhury’s Nude has found an estimate £20,000-30,000 and Paritosh Sen’s The Party is estimated at £20,000-30,000.

In tandem, J. Swaminthan’s Untitled is valued in the region of £60,000-80,000, Krishen Khanna £50,000-70,000, an Akbar Padamsee Head £30,000-50,000, with Rameshwar Broota’s Unidentified Soldier hovering at £20,000-30,000. In step, B Prabha is projected to fetch £10,000-15,000, while a Ganesh Pyne drawing is valued at £4,000-6,000.

In the slightly earlier paintings, Hemen Mazumdar is estimated at £18,000-22,000, the Jamini Roys in the range of £3,000-10,000 and the miniatures in the bracket of £7,000-12,000. Among the clutch of contemporary artists, Shibu Natesan is priced at £15,000-20,000, Sudhansu Sutar £4,000-6,000, Jagannath Panda £7,000-10,000 and Ravikumar Kashi £3,000-5,000.

“It is a very good blend of the modern and the contemporary as well as miniatures. It starts with the miniatures and then leads into the modern and the contemporary. The Gaitonde is a very interesting work. A Souza reclining nude inspired by Titian is also high quality. There’s also an unusual Bikash,” Dadiba Pandole, consultant to Sotheby’s in India, told ET.

“The auction appears to be a very balanced sale, covering a whole cross-section of Indian artists. This is the third sale of Indian art in London by Sotheby’s. It should do quite well and interest a wider audience. The sale has works positioned in varied price points.

There are collections for everyone. One has Souza works priced at even £1,500. Keenness about Indian art is growing in the West. So, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more bidders. This is the largest sale of Indian art in London in terms of lots. We have sourced works from across the world including Europe and India,” Mr Pandole said.

The Times of India: New delight for art lovers

6 May, 2007

NEW DELHI: Indian artist Sidharth Singh gave art lovers a real delight by holding a preview of his paintings in the Capital. Based on the concept of Barah maha (twelve months, the seasons), some of Mr Singh's work have been selected for the Sotheby's auction to held in London from May 17 to June 3 this year. The artist, known for using vibrant natural colours which he produces himself, describes his collection as the culmination of "a journey of seeing things in my environment that I may not have seen had I missed the opportunities". And, the "journey of self-discovery" that Mr Singh has undertaken through his art has certainly brought him a long way – from painting signboards while at school, to the British auction giant Sotheby's. Singh believes that a European audience is not really needed for the real market for Indian art lies in India itself. "The market is better in India. The European market is not really needed. It is only that they are now becoming aware of Indian art. This growing awareness is very positive," said Mr Singh. As for whether this interest in Indian art is just a phase, Mr Singh said: "Everything has its own heights, its own graphs. The West has now started to look at this part of the world for hope, as Indian art is still traditional." However, he feels that this interest will certainly not be short-lived. Mr Singh uses natural mineral pigments, which can be found in soft stone or in clay. He also produces vegetables dyes from extracts of roots, stems, barks, leaves, fruits, nuts and shoots of different plants, trees and shrubs. He even uses different languages in all his sculptures. He uses more than one language while writing names. One letter may be written in Tibetan, one in Pali, one in Hindi, one in Chinese, one in Swahil. Also putting in an appearance at the preview was Indian star Dimple Kapadia, who happens to be one of Mr Singh's students.

DNA : Yash Birla makes his way into US art mart by following the money

Uttara Choudhury

Saturday, May 05, 2007 01:53 IST

NEW YORK: US art buyers don’t have to rely solely on Asian galleries and auctions at Sotheby’s and its rival Christie’s to buy great contemporary Indian art. Mumbai industrialist Yash Birla is now bringing modern works to the US though his new global art distribution company.

The young Birla scion’s Birla Art International not only has an impressive inventory of hundreds of works by over 40 contemporary Indian artists, but it also offers potential US art dealers and retail galleries a peek at works in progress. It will even help US buyers get in touch with Indian contemporary masters so that they can commission new works. “The Birla family has always been a great patron of art and therefore this venture was imminent,” said Birla, chairman of the Yash Birla Group.

“Contemporary Indian art seems to be heading for new frontiers and art is being looked at as an asset class like equities, gold or real estate,” he added.

Truer words were never spoken. Today, wealthy Indians both at home and abroad believe investing in art can be as “prestigious as a good address” and as profitable as playing the stock market. BusinessWeek pointed out that art has been the “best investment” in India in recent years and given higher returns than even bellwether firms like Wipro, Tata and Infosys.

“To get supercharged returns, you’d have done far better with a painting by Ram Kumar. A 6-foot-by-4-foot oil that sold for $32,000 in 2003 might fetch $500,000 today — a 1,462% run-up,” calculated the US magazine. The Birla Art International catalogue will not only carry works by Ram Kumar that are zooming in value but feature other established and upcoming artists like Jogen Choudhury, Krishen Khanna, Deepak Shinde, Vilas Shinde, Jitish Kallat, Bose Krishnamachari.

Photo historian and curator Niyatee Shinde has worked hard to build an eclectic Birla Art catalogue for US dealers and veteran collectors.

Shinde has also picked trendy modern works that will appeal to younger Indian art world newcomers.

“We have consistently worked with belief in the work of Indian artists and our roster of artists reads like a hall of fame. These names constitute the finest,” said Shinde who will rotate art works between Articullate Gallery in Mumbai and the US market.

There has long been a global market for Indian miniature paintings, sculptures and antiquities. But now there is a surge of interest in the country's modern art. Last month’s Sotheby’s auction of Indian art in New York fetched a record $15 million. Tyeb Mehta's 1987 “Falling Figure” sold to a multinational corporation in Singapore for $1.1 million smashing the presale estimate of $8,00,000.

Indian Express : Tantric geometry - A look at Velu Viswanadhan’s remarkable journey

Vandana Kalra

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Long before Indian art made waves in international galleries, his abstract idiom had made Paris sit up and take notice. A look at Velu Viswanadhan’s remarkable journey, from lush green Kerala to the inner structure of things

When priests in his village at Kollam, Kerala, summoned gods through the arcs and curves of a mandala, Velu Viswanadhan, then a child fighting pangs of hunger, watched in quiet wonder. Years later, his canvas still chants those cosmic diagrams—the circle that inscribes chaos and colours, the triangle that holds in its dark hollow the seed of creation— through a strikingly individual idiom.

It was a language that made Paris sit up and take notice in the late 1960s, decades before Indian art would become the toast of international galleries. “I went to Paris with a baggage of tantric images, geometrical forms and symbols,” Viswanadhan commented a few years ago. That baggage was the alphabet in his quest for an indigenous language of abstraction. In Delhi last week for an exhibition of his early works, titled Early Years, he said, “The baggage will always remain with me. I grew up amid those who practised tantric rituals and the influence of geometric forms on my earlier works came from there. I later realised that these forms have the same meaning everywhere.”

But before the rave reviews in Paris came years of struggle. The rebellious son of the Vishwakarma clan—of sculptors, architects, idol-makers, the legendary builders of the world—was branded a “communist” and expelled from Sree Narayana College, Kollam, after he led a strike against the college’s decision to disqualify students who did not have the requisite attendance. The study of political science and economics ended there. Instead, he knocked on the doors of Government College of Arts and Crafts, Madras, a decision that led his furious father to disown him.

In June 1960, he left for Chennai. There he met K.C.S. Panicker, the principal of the college and the artist who steered an entire generation towards new ways of seeing. Driven by Panicker to “find his own expression” the artist with a wild mop of hair soon turned from figurative works to a tantric vocabulary of lingams and yonis and nudes inspired by Picasso (Agony, Orange Nudes and Music of Silence). “I wanted to explore things; it was more like researching. I was a daredevil of sorts,” he says of those years.

In 1966, he was part of a small group that set up the Cholamandalam Artists’ Village near Chennai, again under the aegis of Panicker. “Panicker was worried that his students might deviate from art due to financial compulsions. Cholamandalam gave them the security,” says Viswanadhan.

By the time he set off for Europe, Viswanadhan had crafted a distinctive style. He landed in Paris in 1968, without a return ticket. “How I would come back to India was not my concern at that point. I wanted to travel and discover,” he says. He wanted the freedom of the exile. A year later, he simply sauntered into the Galerie de France and demanded that his work be shown. The courage did the trick. Viswanadhan had arrived.

In the French capital, his art acquired more sophistication. He used nudes as canvas and broke new ground with his material—blending turpentine with stamp ink and oil colours, watercolours with oil and acrylic with oil surfaces. Geometric figures gained dominance. Squares, rectangles, hexagons, triangles and bold lines of colours created a mesh that sometimes evoked the innocence of a hopscotch diagram, sometimes the primordial energy of a jagged cave. In doing so, he was pushing the limits of Indian art. “He was extremely bold to have taken to abstract (art) when not many in the country were experimenting with it… His works of the ’60s and the ’70s have a contemporary feel. Even today, the amount of energy they exude is commendable,” says Chennai-based artist Achuthan Kudallur.

The move towards abstraction was also a move away from religious connotations and labels. The works were mostly untitled. “I didn’t want to condition people to view the painting in a particular way by giving them a title,” he says.

But look hard and you’ll find the artist’s origins woven into the geometry of his art. “His paintings reflect his struggle in Paris and the dilemmas that he faced as a young artist abroad... The tantric imagery, deep reds and greens remind one of Kerala, his home state. Unlike several other artists, his abstracts do not have a mechanical precision,” says art critic Roobina Karode.

Then came a near-fatal car accident in Germany in 1976, which steered his career to another direction: films. A series of five films on the five elements — earth, water, fire, air, ether—shot around the coasts of India helped him explore his roots. He plans to revisit the places to film them again.

The maverick artist has also moved on; now it’s his turn to face the camera. He is the subject of Chennai-based independent filmmaker Kalairani’s documentary Matter is the Matter, scheduled for release in July. “The film will showcase Viswa as a person and not merely an artist. He is wacky, fun and at the same time level-headed and that’s what makes him interesting,” says the debutante filmmaker. So she has the veteran artist speaking about his passion for theatre and even dancing to drumbeats in Chennai.

How was it to face the arc lights outside galleries? “Nice,” he chuckles. “During my theatre days people asked me what I was doing in art when I should have been in Bollywood… I might have given Amitabh Bachchan some competition.” Whether cinema might have missed a star is debatable, but Indian art sure has found an artist of pure form — one who looks away from objects into the inner structure of things.

DNA : Amateurism won’t work - Manu Parekh

Saumit Singh

Wednesday, May 02, 2007 22:08 IST

Celebrated painter Manu Parekh feels Indian art should actively nurture its unique identity.

He’s just shown in Mumbai and next month he’s off to hold an exhibition at the prestigious Berkeley Square Gallery in London. But ask Padmashree Manu Parekh if Indian art is finally getting the recognition it deserves, surprisingly, he shakes his head. “Frankly, Indian art is just starting to go international. We have a great talent bank and I’d say the potential is tremendous.

And sure enough, the entire family of this 69-year-old JJ School of Art alumnus is immersed in the fine arts. His wife Madhvi and his daughter Manisha are also accomplished painters, while his other daughter Deepa took to photography - probably just to avoid the uniformity. “Perhaps,” he laughs. “But it was her interest and we encouraged her.”

While he’s doing extremely well for himself, Manu says he’s never thought about keping track of the art mart. “I’m not in the least interested in what price others are getting.
As long as I feel happy with what I am getting, I’ll continue working. Money isn’t everything but yes, along the way, you do learn to take advantage of a good market,” he admits with refreshing candour.

The biggest boon of the growing interest in art, feels Manu, is that it’s finally becoming a career option. “You know, I don’t mind if you call it the art market - that’s the unadorned reality of the situation. But when I had started painting, it wasn’t because the market was good but because I wanted to - and I had to struggle for 40 years. But today, people can afford to take up painting as a full time profession,” he says.

But isn’t it also true that with almost everyone trying their hand at painting, there’s suddenly a glut of artists in the market, many of whom know little about its intricacies?
“For that matter, there are even a lot of gallerists and collectors who don’t know good art from bad,” he chuckles. “But amateurism will only work for a while, not forever.”

Having said that, he doesn’t shy away from complimenting those who deserve it. “I feel people shouldn’t be insecure about admiring other’s works. Not only do I like the works of others, I also collect them. In fact, many artists I know are also serious collectors,” says Manu. “In the overall sense, I’d say I quite admire the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Souza, Hussain, Ramaswami, Bhupen Kakkar and my wife Madhvi.”

This senior artist is a forceful proponent of preserving the uniqueness of Indian art. “We should not lose touch with our roots and should be faithful to the Indian point of view - because it is part of our very identity,” he signs off.

s_saumit@dnaindia.net