INDIA'S SHAME : The Financial Express : When artistic license just doesn’t count

After M F Husain, the moral police now considers the paintings of a young art student obscene. Is it time for creative artists to feel insecure?

SUMAN TARAFDAR AND PRIYA KANUNGO
Posted online: Sunday, May 20, 2007

Chandramohan Srilamantula, an art student of M S University, Vadodara, spent six days behind bars recently. He was locked up because his paintings were found to be “obscene and offensive to religious sentiments”. While such incidents would be unheard of for any other subject (no one is imprisoned for flunking math), art has been in the firing line of traditionalists for quite a while.

Why is art the subject of such virulent attacks? Who decides what is obscene? Does art offend religious sentiments? Attacks on art are not new. They cut across nationalities and races. Religious beliefs have got offended over some issue or the other. And they seem to be doing so with increasing rapidity. “In India’s contemporary art history, there have been cases of paintings being labeled obscene,” says artist Ghulam Sheikh, “but today, the emphasis is on religion and how certain paintings hurt the religious sentiments of people.”

If traditional Indian art is to be tracked, it isn’t as if there is an absence of nudity in it. “People who vandalise art do have adequate knowledge of India’s classical art,” says photographer Ram Rahman. “It is full of bare-breasted goddesses and nude gods. The panchmukhi shivling, lajja gauris (naked goddesses) and the terracotta deities are famously erotic. And who can forget the sculptures of Khajuraho, Konark or Ajanta. Ask these people whether they will tear down these sculptures.”

M F Husain, who is being considered for India’s highest public honour, the Bharat Ratna, is ironically living in exile. And it’s not an exile decreed by the justice system of the land, but a ‘voluntary’ one, forced by the ‘extra-constitutional’ bodies offended by his Bharatmata (Mother India) painting of 2006. This is an artist who has been honoured by the nation with the Padma Bhushan in 1973 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1989. He has been a member of the Indian Parliament, yet, the State has about 900 cases filed against him in the country. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and associated groups, all self-proclaimed spokespersons for the Hindus, have also declared themselves to be offended by his paintings.

The leader of the opposition in Parliament, and former deputy prime minister LK Advani said in a meeting that “the BJP could not support unlimited personal freedom of an artist to hurt religious sentiments.” As expected, the artist community has taken the opposite viewpoint. “As far as Husain’s paintings are concerned, I don’t think there is any obscenity in it,” says artist Akbar Padamsee. Painter Krishen Khanna, a childhood friend of Husain says: “I called him (Husain) and expressed my regret at what was happening. He said, ‘they are just some misguided individuals. Leave all this, let’s talk about painting.”

Not as high-profile as Husain perhaps, but artists nevertheless, Sanjeev Khandekar and Vaishali Narkar also faced censorship of a kind. In August 2006, they had put up an art show entitled ‘Tits, Clits n Elephant Dicks’ at the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai. The police ordered that the exhibits be covered with black cloth as they were, yes, you guessed it, obscene.

Which brings us to the tired old question—what is obscene and does art become so, intentionally or otherwise? Padamsee cites his experience of facing such a charge. “In 1954, the police ordered that I remove a painting that was in a show. The painting had the image of a man and a woman, with the man’s hand on the woman’s breast. The police said that according to the Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the painting is obscene. I said the painting isn’t obscene and that I wouldn’t remove it. They arrested me and put me behind bars. I was released on bail, but the case was dismissed after nine months. The ruling was that Section 292 cannot be applied to artists exhibiting in art galleries.”

That art is not merely decoration, but an agent of provocation, a tool to take humankind forward, has been pointed out as many times by its defenders as it has been opposed by those who claim their morality to be outraged. “Art always tries to push the boundaries, which cannot be done if everything is judged by extremists,” says artist Vivan Sundaram, who, incidentally, is from the same Vadodara university that is currently in the eye of the storm. Recalling his days in the university, Sundaram says, “There are no boundaries or limitations for students to create art. It can be about gays, dalits or anything. They have all the right and freedom to express their creativity.”

The wheels of justice may grind slow, but they do seem to come out more often on the side of the righteous. Over the years, a number of such cases have been dismissed—from that early Padamsee, to exhibitions after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, to struggles by Anant Pathwardhan to show his films on Doordarshan. They have won each time. But why does the artist still feel the lack of support from the State?

—with inputs from Dhiren Dukhu

INDIA'S SHAME : New York Times : At a University in India, New Attacks on an Old Style: Erotic Art

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Published: May 19, 2007

NEW DELHI, May 18 — It’s a heady time for Indian contemporary art. Never before has it fetched such extravagant prices and acclaim abroad. Never before have Indians at home been so prosperous as to support a proliferation of galleries, exhibitions and even investment funds devoted to art.

But art and its inevitable transgressions continue to provoke fury in Hindu nationalist quarters, leading stalwarts to shut down an exhibition, drive an artist out of the country or, in the latest case, send a young art student to jail for a final-exam project deemed offensive. The student’s arrest has prompted protests from prominent artists across the country and dominated newspaper headlines in recent days.

The tempest began on May 9 when a lawyer accompanied by police officers and television news crews marched into the art department at the respected Maharaja Sayajirao University, a state-run institution in Vadodara, in western Gujarat state. (Gujarat’s elected government is led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.)

The lawyer, Niraj Jain, based locally and affiliated with the party, said he was aggrieved by several works exhibited on a wall in the department library, including a painting — or rather a digital enlargement of a painted work — depicting a female form wielding weapons in her many arms, evoking a goddess from the Hindu pantheon, and giving birth. It was the final-year art project by Chandramohan, a graduate student who goes by one name.

The university, at the urging of Mr. Jain, persuaded the police to arrest the student and put him in jail. His crime, the city police commissioner, P. C. Thakur, said, was “deliberately offending religious sentiments.”

In response Chandramohan’s fellow students swiftly cobbled together material from the art history department archives and mounted an exhibition to underline the obvious: that even ancient Indian art is replete with explicitly erotic forms.

What came next seems to have startled the art world as much as the arrest did. The university’s vice chancellor, Manoj Soni, demanded an apology from the acting dean of the art department and ordered that the protest exhibition be closed.

The acting dean, Shivaji Panikkar, refused and was suspended. The administration took down the protest exhibition and then sealed the art history archives. “They want to control how we interpret our past,” said Parul Dave Mukherji, a former art history professor at the university who was on campus that week grading final exams.

Mr. Soni has offered no public explanation and has declined several requests for a comment. In a statement the university called the works “highly deplorable.”

Chandramohan was released on bail on Monday after five days’ imprisonment and has gone into hiding. He could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Jain, whose police complaint set off the art school crisis, said he was proud of his campaign. He described the student’s artwork as an attack on Indian culture. “I cannot tolerate any insult to our culture and to our god and goddesses,” he said in a telephone interview. He said he was also offended by a student painting in which a figure of Jesus was placed before a toilet.

It is not the first time artistic expression in this country has been squelched by state institutions. In Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, a court charged M. F. Husain, perhaps India’s most famous contemporary painter, with obscenity because of a painting he made of a goddess in the nude. Mr. Husain now lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai. Because he had not appeared for court hearings, the court recently issued a notice directing that his property in Mumbai be seized. (The Supreme Court has issued a stay.)

India is rarely lacking for paradox, and one of the most striking is that the puritanism of today’s Hindu radicals coexists with a long tradition of graphic sexual iconography. Hindu temple carvings often feature elaborate scenes of copulation. Among the best-known examples, at Khajuraho, in central India, was invoked this week in newspaper commentaries skewering what was referred to as the moral police brigade.

Writing in the Tuesday issue of The Indian Express, a national daily, Peter Ronald de Souza, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, a research organization here, said of the Hindu activists who forced the student’s arrest:

“It tells us not just they do not fear the wrath of the law, and that they believe censorship is acceptable in the service of a cause, but also they are certain that their actions would meet with social approval. So did the Taliban.”

His commentary was headlined, “Will They Blow Up Khajuraho?”

In a protest on Monday night here in New Delhi, prominent artists, curators and art teachers condemned the attack on the student’s work as a violation of basic freedom. “India is descending into a dark prison of the imagination,” warned Ram Rahman, a Delhi-based artist who took part.

Though not charged with any offense, Mr. Panikkar, the art department dean, has also gone into hiding. Friends have warned him that opposing Hindu radical groups in Gujarat state is inviting trouble — and not necessarily protection from the police — he explained in a cellphone interview on Tuesday night.

Wearily chronicling the chain of events, Mr. Panikkar said he had refused to apologize for the student’s artwork out of “principles and conviction.” He said he was “baffled” by the university administration’s crusade against a student project.

Asked how long he had taught on this campus, he suddenly broke down in tears. He said he was an alumnus of Maharaja Sayajirao University and had been a professor of art history there for 27 years. “I can’t bear it,” he said, weeping. “My life and blood is here. My institution, which I love so much.”

The Economic Times : Bonhams art auction gets an Indian shade

ASHOKE NAG

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007

KOLKATA: Famed UK auctioneer Bonhams is heading for another sale of Indian art in London on May 21. The auction of Indian lots is pegged at a total estimated value of £2,305,900-3,107,500. The spread of Indian lots is somewhat close to 139. There are additional 13 Pakistani lots, taking the total number up to 152.

Among the high value lots is the 60s Husain work ‘Two Women with Elephants’, which is estimated at £1,50,000-2,00,000. The painting is from a private German collection. In step is the Tyeb Mehta’s ‘Thrown Bull’ from the Nuffield College, Oxford collection which also shows an estimate of £1,50,000-2,00,000. Another Nuffield College collection is FN Souza’s 1961 Italian townscape which is valued in the range of £120,000-180,000.

At the same time, another Souza titled Caribbean Palms, painted in 1968, carries a price tag of £1,20,000-1,50,000. Bonhams, which is famous for its Souzas, has yet another major work by the artist, a 1957 Head. The work is from a private UK collection and originally from Gallery One and reflects an estimate of £1,20,000-1,50,000. The 1970 ‘Jagdish Swaminathan Mountain and Bird’ is placed at an estimate of £150,000-1,80,000.

In the medium value lots is MF Husain’s 1960s ‘Figure’, which is estimated at £50,000-70,000 while B Prabha’s ‘Girl Standing By A Hut’ is valued at £25,000-35,000. Included in the basket of lots are also two Sadanand K Bakre landscapes from a private UK collection which are slotted at estimates of £25,000-30,000 and £20,000-30,000. Sourced again from private UK collections are a large Jamini Roy piece titled Musicians priced at £30,000-40,000 and KK Hebbar’s ‘Himalayan Landscape’, which is estimated in the band of £25,000-35,000.

According to Claire Penhallurick, head of Indian and Islamic art at Bonhams, the auction underscores the auction house’s emphasis on works from private UK sources. “The auction has a very good selection of works, numbering 21, by Jamini Roy. There are also some interesting earlier works, before the more familiar modernist Progressives, by Hebbar and Langhammer,” Ms Penhallurick said.

She went on to add that four lots by Bakre, including the two mentioned above, “whose works have appeared almost exclusively at Bonhams sales, is a hitherto strangely under-appreciated member of the Progressives”. Summing up, Ms Penhallurick said: “The sale also features a group of Souza drawings which attract interest by being more affordable than a lot of paintings. In the entire package are also an unusual group of early works by Husain which form an interesting comparison with later examples.”

www.albawaba.com : modern & contemporary indian art auctions return to christie's london

16-05-2007

Christie’s marked an exceptional year in the contemporary art market, with Modern and Contemporary Indian art becoming one of the art market’s fastest growing areas. As market leader in the field, Christie’s is pleased to announce the return of Modern & Contemporary Indian Art sales to London on 21 May 2007. Showcasing the scope of Modern & Contemporary Indian Art from established through to up-and-coming artists, the sale includes important works by masters of the field such as the revered Syed Haider Raza, Francis Newton Souza, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Maqbool Fida Husain, Tyeb Mehta and Akbar Padamsee. The sale of 105 lots is estimated to fetch in the region of £4 million, with estimates ranging from £1,000 to over £450,000.

“The incredible growth of Indian Art over the past five years has seen Christie’s annual sale totals increase from $600,000 in 2000 to $42 million worldwide in 2006. After an eight-year hiatus, during which the Modern Indian sales were expanded to New York, Hong Kong and the emerging market of Dubai, Christie's has now added London, a city that is home to many Indians and lovers of Indian art,” says Yamini Mehta, Christie’s Director of Modern and Contemporary Indian Art.

FRANCIS NEWTON SOUZA (1924-2002)
A superb selection of works from one of the masters of modern Indian art, Francis Newton Souza (b. 1924), offers a wonderful opportunity to established collectors looking to enhance their collections or those just starting out. An artist who combines great intellect with raw emotion, Souza looked to Western Modernism for inspiration on how to radicalize and shock the South Asian art world, founding the legendary Bombay Progressive Artists Group (PAG) in 1947, the year of India's independence.

VASUDEO S. GAITONDE (1924-2001)
Amongst the sale highlights is a masterpiece by one of India's premier abstractionists, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, which is untitled and painted in 1968 in striking hues of emerald and pale blues (estimate: £450,000-550,000). Gaitonde began his career by meticulously creating works in the vein of Indian miniature paintings. Later in his oeuvre, he was influenced by Paul Klee, Zen Buddhism and Chinese calligraphy

SYED HAIDER RAZA (b. 1922)
Leading the selection of works by Indian painter and founder-member of the Progressive Artists’ Group, Syed Haider Raza (b. 1922), is the seminal painting, La Terre from 1985 (estimate: £400,000-600,000) which is offered from a European collection and has been published in Geeti Sen's book, Bindu. A masterpiece of colour and composition, Raza seamlessly merges his horizontal bands with elegant obliques in what is considered one of the finest examples of painting in his oeuvre.

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
Drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources, whether it is Justin Ponmany employing the means of holograms as prettifying foils for the alleys of Mumbai or Subodh Gupta capturing everyday India from the vantage of mass market goods , the contemporary section of the sale features works from some of the most sought-after upcoming artists. Also on offer are works from acclaimed Pakistani artists Talha Rathore and Nusra Latif Qureshi who form the vanguard of the contemporary miniaturists from Pakistan and have been widely exhibited internationally.

INDIA'S SHAME : NDTV : Saffron tinge haunts Baroda art institute - More Artists speak out

Supriya Sharma

Monday, May 14, 2007 (Baroda)

The attack by BJP activists on the Fine Arts Faculty of Baroda's MS University is part of a growing evidence that the institute is being sucked into the communally charged climate of Narendra Modi's Gujarat.

Until not long ago, the faculty and the world famous artists it produced seemed like a self-contained liberal and cosmopolitan universe. Their lives and their work intertwined with the life of Baroda.

''I always thought that Gujarat is a civilised place and they let people be even if they differ 'from them. At least that is the Gujarat I knew when I came in the 1950s to teach in the institution,'' said KG Subramanyam, Founding Faculty, Fine Arts, MS University.

Generations of artists in India have looked at KG Subramanyam with both awe and regard as one of the founding teachers of an arts school that challenged and subverted long prevailing dogmas in Indian art.

Producing work that drew on tradition but was contemporary and cutting edge reflected in the works of internationally acclaimed artists like Bhupen Khakkar, Vivian Sundaram and many others.

Great irony

But now, 50 illustrious years later, Subramanyam looks on as the faculty he established is challenged by dogma of another kind.

The great irony is that such attacks draw legitimacy by claiming art as elitist and culturally delinked. But as old timers say the faculty of fine arts was from the very beginning linked to the organic life of Baroda.

Indrapramit Roy was a Calcutta boy when he came here to study. But like many others he ended up staying on as a teacher.

Among the many things he picked up was Garba, Gujarat's traditional dance.

''Everyone was encouraged to dance. That was the attempt that art should be related not only to environment but also to cultural context in which it belongs,'' said Prof Indrapramit Roy, Faculty, Fine Arts.

But as the context began to change in Gujarat, artists could hardly remain insulated.

Communal riots

As riots engulfed the city in 2002, Ghulam Mohd Shaikh, among the most senior and respected artists in the city, received threatening calls and was forced to leave Baroda for several months.

Artist BV Suresh said that the attack on the faculty does not surprise him. He sees it as part of the ongoing legacy of post Godhra Gujarat.

A legacy he tried to grapple with through an installation that showed a burnt bread. It was a direct and pointed comment on the burning of the Best Bakery in riot-scarred Baroda.

''We are questioned by people who live in our building. Doodhala, sabziwla they ask us what's happening. We need to tell our side of the story. So important to have posters in Gujarati,'' said a citizen.

And yet the disturbing reality remains that as people from across the country descend on Baroda in support of the students, within the city one man is gaining stature.

Niraj Jain, till some time ago, was just another advocate and member of the VHP. He tried contesting a municipal election on a BJP ticket but lost.

''We have got 30 SMSes from Mumbai. People have sent 7,000 emails in support. Three mails are from London. Not just BJP, even the Congress leaders are calling,'' he said.

Today he knows he has hit a jackpot.

INDIA'S SHAME : Indian Express : Will they blow up Khajuraho?

Peter Ronald DeSouza

Posted online: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 0000 hrs

A society that fails to protect its freedoms will be denuded of its life force. The vandalism at MS University in Baroda is yet another portent

The essence of a free society is its ability to encourage dissent against all authority — political, academic, religious or cultural. On May 11, the television pictures from the University of Baroda showed us the face of tyranny. That Sangh Parivar goons who stormed and vandalised the exhibition of art work put up by a student at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the MS University at Baroda, could then speak with such confidence to television cameras is shocking. It tells us not just that they do not fear the wrath of the law, and that they believe censorship is acceptable in the service of a cause, but also that they are certain that their actions would meet with social approval. So did the Taliban.

There are five aspects of the episode that need our immediate attention. It should not be seen as an isolated incident, posing no challenge to our robust culture of freedom, but should instead be regarded as yet another example, together with the threats against M.F. Husain and Shilpa Shetty, of a growing fanaticism. The vandals seem emboldened by our collective inertia. As all vandals always are.

The first aspect, therefore, that should merit our attention is to recognise that the vandalism took place not just in the university but in the classroom or art studio. This is disturbing because a university is a sacred place where, according to convention, even the police do not enter unless permitted by the vice chancellor. In a university it is the classroom, or the art studio in this case, which is the sanctum sanctorum. Here even another teacher does not enter when a class is in progress, because it is the place where a teacher and her student together explore the universe of knowledge. This relationship of teacher and student is inviolable. Interference in the classroom, by another who has no legal basis to be there, is a violation of the freedom of the teacher and the student. If this is violated with impunity then that society is truly damned. Imagine interfering with Dronacharya.

The second aspect of concern is the arrest of the student. His only crime was to create works of art that were objectionable to the vandals. Where in the Constitution is creating a work of art, which is to be judged by teachers in the fine arts faculty of a university, a crime? Where in the Constitution is it acceptable to keep an artist in jail for four days just because he has submitted his work for evaluation by his teachers? Are not the real violaters of the Constitution, the vandals and the police?

The third aspect is the suspension by the university of the acting dean of the faculty for permitting, against the vice-chancellor’s instructions, a protest exhibition by students mounted in response to the arrest — an exhibition of art erotica in the Indian tradition. If peaceful protest is proscribed in a university, and an exhibition of Indian art erotica banned, then are we not moving towards a society where Khajuraho and Konark may be blown up by mortars because they are considered objectionable, where the Kama Sutra will be banned because it is too explicit? The dean was right in ignoring the VC’s order. The VC was wrong to give such an order. He has no place in a university. In fact by his order he has earned a place among the vandals.

The fourth aspect is the role of the pro-VC, who along with the university engineer, personally removed the art exhibits and sealed the department. This is deplorable. It is indeed a sad day when a pro-VC, entrusted with the duty of protecting the university and nurturing the next generation of artists, acts as a member of the vandal brigade. How far have we fallen? The enemy of freedom now seems to be within us.

The fifth aspect concerns the actions of the police. This is the most alarming aspect. While one rotten university administration can be isolated and contained by a healthy society, and one faulty order reversed by a vigilant academic community, how does one deal with the lawless guardians of the law? Only the other custodians of the Constitution can stop the grim slide into what the former attorney general termed the talibanisation of the Indian mind.

The governor, as visitor of the university, must, in the strongest possible terms, reprimand and censure the vice chancellor and pro-vice chancellor. The governor must summon the director general of police and seek from him an explanation for the police action. The Supreme Court must do what it did in the case of the non-implementation of the ICDS scheme, and summon suo moto all the directors general of police, of all the states, and instruct them to curb such vandalism that is growing across the country. It is from the new frontiers which the artist scales that new ideas come. The artist must be protected. The artist must be honoured. We must do it for our own sake.

The writer is senior fellow, CSDS, Delhi

INDIA'S SHAME : Kolkata Newsline : Art in Arms - Jogen speaks out

INCIDENTS IN BARODA HAVE GALVANISED THE ARTISTIC AND ACADEMIC CIRCLES IN KOLKATA TO PROTEST. IN BETWEEN, THEY WANT TO CREATE AWARENESS ABOUT THE POSITION OF NUDES IN INDIAN ART

Pragya Paramita

If art at its best is more often than not consummated through abstraction, the reality facing the artist is grim. Chandramohan got jailed, his supporters gagged and the idea of the art being a seamless expression of the artist’s mind infringed.

The ripples of Baroda - where art student Chandramohan was first, manhandled, and then jailed, for his alleged ‘offensive’ paintings of nude divinities - has reached Kolkata. The city, considered often as the storehouse of art and artistic talent in the country, joined other Indian cities on Monday in raising its voice against a gross violation of the artist’s license to create.

It is not just the arrest of Chandramohan, and the subsequent suspension of the acting dean of the Fine Arts faculty of Baroda University, Professor Shivaji Panikkar who stood up for the artist, which has shocked the artist and academic fraternity of Kolkata. What has them fuming is the “lack of apathy of the university authorities”, be it in the delay in securing the release of the student or in expecting an apology from both the student and the Dean. “A university is supposed to be a place of learning, a place for the exchange of ideas, where one can give free reign to their imagination. It is incomprehensible how the university authorities could do this,” stated historian Janaki Nair of the Centre for Study of Social Sciences (CSSS).

It is ironic that when the protest in Kolkata at the Academy of Fine Arts premises was on, news filtered in that twenty more students were arrested in Baroda for protesting against the incident.

The frequency with which artists have been targeted in India by the ‘moral police’ for hurting religious sentiments has added thunder to the voices of protest in Kolkata. While the current controversy may have triggered the protests, the gathering objected to the ‘moral policing’ on creativity in general. “From established artists like MF Hussain and Bhupen Kakkar to younger artists like Chandramohan, all are now answerable to the moral brigade,” complained one of the artists present at the venue.

Artist Jogen Chowdhury felt that the clampdown on artistic creativity being experienced in India has less to do with safeguarding religious sentiments but more to do with “pleasing governments”. “The protestors don’t understand art or, for that matter, the Hindu religion. I think there was more freedom 20-30 years ago, when there was less of these cases of forcible censorship,” Chowdhury mentioned.

The problem, Chowdhury mentioned, started with the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. “Since then certain elements in society have displayed extreme reactions whenever anything to do with religion or religious iconography has come up,” he added.

Says historian Tapati Guha Thakurta of CSSS: “Hussain has been targeted more for his religious background than anything else. He painted in privacy and those who brought the paintings out in the open should be held accountable. If anything is considered offensive then the way to deal with it is through discussion and debates. Certainly not through extreme methods.”

“People have to understand the difference between something meant for religious worship and something that has been created for artistic purpose. Paintings are not meant for worship,” mentioned Nair, who was one of the signatories on a petition condemning the incident.

Through their protest, the artists and academicians also attempted to bring to focus the position of nudes in Indian art. Nudes, they emphasised, have been an intrinsic part of Indian paintings since ancient times and the recent hoopla over it does not have any historical basis. “Moreover what is even more shocking is that this is the 60th of Indian Independence. It is a shame that we seem to be progressing in the wrong direction,” summed up artist Dipali Bhattacharjee.