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After near about sixty years of Indian modern art history galleries are still behaving like shops and artists like craftsman. Earlier the agenda set by ‘Bombay progressives’ is still prevailing as most authentic ideology and approach for art progress. The virus of ‘Marxism’ that bugged Indian mind since the establishments of ‘communist party of India’ and ‘progressive writers association’ of Prem Chanda and then ‘progressive artists association’ has a fatal impact on our cultural development. It is petty bourgeois class that has no ideology of its own sought resort in the Marxism to excess the socio-political. It is this class that prevailed in art and culture after independence; having no character they like electrons jumped from one political and ideological orbit to another in search of opportunity. Their opportunism was to such extent that during independence many among them joined British gang and helped them in their adventure. In art and culture field they took reign, they ate its spirit and cancered it with the bug called ‘Marxist ideology’. They were never truthful to their persuasions it is true; what they called ‘ideology’ was just a tool to excess socio- political. They had their own type of petty-bourgeois socialism as we see it in formation of many cast centered political parties. Many feudal mentality intellectuals that formed political parties like JDU, SP, and the like to lead the feudal class did all wrongs to us. See how socialist like Mulayam Singh and Lalu Yadava during their reign promoted feudal lumpenism doing all crimes against people and the society. Their cultural Heroes having feudal mentality tried to corrupt the masses. These are the ills of the society who are promoting kinds of culture and mentality “jo dikhta hai wah bikta hai’ and “any how earn money and enjoy it”. One Week back I was watching NDTV India where recently Padam Sree awardee journo Barkha dutta hosted a show and called Shobha Day, Maurin Wadia as judges in the show together with editor of the LOKSATTA in which Shobha Day put her stamp on “jo dikhta hai wah bikta hai’ advocating Rakhi Sawant kind of stretcher for youngsters of new India to follow. Now this petty bourgeois mentality writer who is all famous for her third class writings has become intellectual. Bhaichanda Patel Outlook columnist in his recent review of her book ‘superstar India’ wrote “she skips from one topic to another without saying anything substantial …..Nothing is analyzed, just a thousand words on something and we quickly move on to something else. She takes us to Shanghai, Bangkok, Singapore, Xian and London. The reader can only wonder what these places have to do ‘superstar India’. She is representative of Indian petty bourgeois class intellectual who have no content that is sublime.
This kind of mentality is being promoted by many opportunist intellectuals and journalists. The motif behind this is only one- ‘save petty bourgeois consciousness by promoting irrationalism’. In this postmodern world there are journalists and TV channels that promote stories of Ghosts and superstitious content to dumb the viewers mind. Corrupted consciousness of newly rich class of the society has to be blamed for this kind of promotion and corruption. Amongst all this many others are there who (namely Maoist revolutionaries) are active and doing well to capture the power from this ruling section of the society. The specter is waiting to come but this petty bourgeois class people that believe only in self centered way of life is blind. They have no philosophy of their own they are shifting electrons they behave according to situation. As I have already said they are opportunist; what they are doing they are doing and when other will grab power from them they will join them and follow them. It happened in British era too. In cultural arena too this class is doing the same, it goes at any extent for the money. Contemporary Indian cultural intellectuals seek all kinds of logic to validate their ills. Contemporary art is also cancered by many ills in the name of progressiveness. Husain’s paintings has nothing to do with art since he has no artistic temperament that creates art that is ‘NEW’ so he takes resort in controversies painting object of faith. He has nothing to do with beauty; he wants just news so he often paints cinema actresses. How to make money and how to make news, he has learned. This old man falls under lumpen craftsman category; he has neither learned nor let other artists learn. Picasso throughout his life never painted objects of faith to get controversy, why? Because he was engaged in creating “new” art that we revere now as Cubism.
Our gallery owners befooled by these claver artists, they were caught in the net of ‘progressives’ that has not progressed a little bit. ‘Whatever can generate money is good’ is their motivations; they could be able to generate capital out of shit. Now while abstract art is proclaimed dead (because it was largely decorative) they are running after Chinese Avant-Garde that largely draws its inspiration from American realism and surrealism. China that got independence two years after ours has become Indian petty bourgeois class ideal to follow. Why it is so? Because they during all these years took challenge to create something ‘NEW’ that they could say their own creation. It is this that makes a nation great. Those who have read the story of great America know how she became powerful. We hope to become world champion and world power and ha! With the petty bourgeois mentality that steals but not creates. Here I am raising question of validity of the trend set by petty bourgeois people, artists, and galleries. As long as truth is not revealed one can cheat to a nation and people but as soon as it is exposed it loses its all power. It is very important for progress to be truthful to what one is doing. During immergence of modern art in India one famous art critic Geeta Kapoor who belonged to elite class of the society wrote a book “when was modernism” basing her self on Marxist concept of aesthetics. In the book she suggests a kind of nationalist modernism but no where she has put the basic question that what is ground of that nationalist modernism? In her book she inquires the evolution of modernism in art but did not question the authenticity of artist’s creation? She rejects all the abstract artists of Indian modern art on the ground of Marxist aesthetics. S.H.RAZA, G.R.SANTOSH, J-SWAMINATHAN, K.CS.PANNIKAR, GANESH HALOI, etc could not found a single page in her book. They were declared irrelevant because they perused aesthetics of ‘High Modernism” which was considered bourgeoisie aesthetics. This orthodox progressive understanding of aesthetics led many artists in wrong direction.
Drawback of petty bourgeois consciousness is this that it does not create; it’s a parasitic consciousness living and exploiting on other’s creations. Scientist turned historian and philosopher D.D. Kosambi once said, “The outstanding characteristic of a backward bourgeoisie, the desire to profit without labor or grasp of technique, is reflected in the superficial ‘research’ so common in India”. They have been called by Marx “the industrialists of philosophy and art who live on the exploitation of art spirit”. Cultural history of post independence India tells us that never was a time when our creative people strived for anything “new” that they could proclaim to the world as their own. Creative people and intellectuals of the world revere not what Indian petty bourgeois class has created after independence rather the heritage our ancestors had left for us to explore. All the Important Researches were done by westerners in the fields like philosophy, art, religion, theology, not by Indian intellectuals. Why? because, during the wake of modernization in India the so called ‘progressives’ negated the wisdom and philosophy of India and blindly by declaring it brahmanical and followed European kind of modernism that came into existence because of their own problems. Indian artists just followed the wisdom of modernism without proper research and study. The wisdom and knowledge that is still being appreciated by many postmodern philosophers and literary personalities was declared barren. It was the leading petty bourgeois class of the society that being cancered by Marxist ideology taught people to follow the European ideologies. There were some artists who first accepted western type of modernism of art but later rejected it believing in the wisdom of India. Among them were Raza, GR Santosh, Biren Day, KCS Panikker, J-swaminathan, Om Prakash Sharma, Laxman Pai, A. Ramachandran, Manjit Bawa, to name few. These artists contributed to art in India and one can say that their art has Indian flavor. Their greatness lies in their creative urge and their promises that ‘one day they would deliver an art that one could say own creation’. But petty bourgeois that inhabit the cultural world did all kinds of conspiracy against these trends to not come out in open. J-Swaminathan whose contribution to Indian art is unsurpassable knew these petty bourgeois mentality and rebelled against them forming a new group called “group 1890’ and started probably first art magazine out of his own hard earned money. Galleries did not help him in his venture and artists like Husain, Krishen khanna (notably these were the artists against whom he did everything, he fought against Husain’s opportunism and backwardness) did all kinds of conspiracy against his venture. His efforts to lodge a discourse in art was not fruitless many artists followed him. He has a say in Indian modern art that has some truthfulness, his struggle against petty bourgeois culture is a historical one and will be remembered.
Art galleries has been backward in their approach to art, this is why they could not understand what to do with this Lady Art. Every time they face problems just like now as they find themselves unable to understand what to do when a bigger segment of art called ‘abstract art’ is declared irrelevant by postmodernists? Adorno’s suggestion is relevant in this regard that ‘without a valid discourse’ art can not move forward. Art is a game in which there are three players artist, galleries, and buyers- there is no public and no critic as such except some paid catalogue writers. Art that has been hacked by petty bourgeois elite class of the society after independence suffered a lot as in the case of Indian literature. In these six years and I am witness and I can say they have cheated the people and delivered nothing. Artist enjoyed their backwardness by producing copies of their paintings with the logic that it was a sadhana- repletion is a sadhana. Let me name some artists those who has been producing the same kind of art for more then ten years- these are –Ramkumar, T.Vaikuntham, Akbar Padamsee, Jogen chaudhury, Arpita singh, Paramjit Singh, K.G.Subramaniyam, there are host of new generation artists. At present situation of Indian contemporary art chaotic, no one knows what would happen. In this condition Chinese Avant-Garde is artists and galleries natural resort above all they have to run their shops. Shop is what is central in the cultural discourse. As long as culture is not free from petty business mentality it would continue back firing.
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