Paint-By-Night-Sell-By-Day-Acrylic-On-Canvas-Artist

'Acrylic on Canvas'

I am no 'paint-by-night-sell-by-day-acrylic-on-canvas-artist'!!

Is this the only medium available to artists in India!!?

When there are other (better) time-tested medium/s...

So why do most contemporary Indian Artists paint exclusively in Acrylic?

Is it a shortcut to fame and money?!! To paint more and sell faster? An easy way out?!! Or is it because Oil is expensive and takes more time, effort and skill to use etc.?!

While there are only a few artists in the West (especially in Europe) who would paint in Acrylic, there are only a few Indian artists who paint in Oil!!

I am no 'paint-by-night-sell-by-day-acrylic-on-canvas-artist'!!

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I have never hung on (like parasites do) to an art institutionº or go from one Foreign Aid/ Scholarship to another to stay afloat.. I have never tired to get into any art college do my 'Masters' and more!!

I didn't had to create Video Art, installation art etc. to stay in news...

I have kept it simple by the old fashion way, old school style of painting and painting with Oils (mostly) on Linen - the classic time-tested medium of the Masters!! My paintings are simple and the titles are kept as simple as possible... using the the KISS theory: Keep-It-Simple-Stupid!! I know I could have sold more if my paintings were titled say 'Metamorphosis'¹ and not 'Yellow Rose in Blue Vase'!!

I don't go into the territory of 'Fantasia Art' or 'Naive Art' (or is it 'Child Art'?)²

I don't try to take on the Folk or Tribal³ art and reinvent them!!

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Art institutions & Art Scholarshipsº

I went to art college, just after my school years.. I was young and naive then... but realised the first day in there, that I haven't got anything much to learn here... so once I complete my 4 years I ran as fast as I could!! To start my real learning of art!!

Am of course referring here to the tribe of artists; who after they have finished their basic Bachelor degrees in Art went on do their Masters etc and later latched on to any "foreign Study Aid/Scholarships/Freebies"!! Last I heard, some of them are still at it!! It's been more than 20 long years that we graduated from our art college (1990).

I had no idea one has to study (?) so much for so long to become an artist!! The fact of the matter is that these institutions/scholarships are of financial benefits and these artists manage to live off them permanently!!

Metamorphosis¹

During my college days there was a junior who had put up his paintings for our yearly college art show.. and titled them as 'Metamorphosis'.

I knew him as one who didn't know a word of English and of course had never heard of 'Kafka' etc ...so when I asked him,
Why?' and 'Does he know the meaning etc?'

"No, it's to impress the art collectors!!" was his reply with a sly smile!! A fast learner... now his works sell at astronomical prices!!

This is a very old trick in an artists' repertoire.. to keep his works and titles as bombastic, ambiguous as possible.. as display of the artists' maturity and depth of emotion etc... Once I made a list of names, titles of exhibitions, paintings... and showed it to an English professor... He was of course dumbfounded and it made extremely funny reading!! Meaningless, mindless, gibberish rubbish!!! Like most of their work!! But to art loving Indian collectors it must have made some sense.. for they do all rushed in to buy them!!

Child Art²

Example of Child or Naive Art

I don't go into the territory of 'Fantasia Art' or 'Naive Art' (or is it 'Child Art'?)²

For us adults 'Child Art' is no child's play!!
Have you seen a child's painting? They are so beautiful and I don't see any reason for us adults to steal their ideas and paint 'like them' and then sell them to art connoisseur at exuberant prices!!
Its simply not fair to the child!!...

³Folk, Tribal Art and It's Reinvention by the 'Con' temporary artists!!!



Thangka, Tanjore, Kalamkari & Madhubani Paintings (l to r)



In the same way why take the forms from 'Thangka' art or 'Kalamkari'? Let them be... they anyway do a much better job of painting a Buddha or a Krishna!! And they are much more reasonably priced than the ones copied by so called 'contempory artist'!!



These trends can only be explained with a bit of our (Indian) art history.. dating back when Nationalism was in rise during the fag end of nineteenth century 1890s) and beginning of twentieth century (1900-47). Many artist consciously-subconsciously wanted to reject anything which was coming from the West.. Western art etc and so they looked inward, in their backyard.. and to the Oriental art. Artists of that era took folk/traditional art forms and transformed them.. In Bengal this was very prevalent... artists looking for inspiration in Ajanta & Elora, taking forms from Chinese and Japanese art etc. I  don't need to cite examples here... It was a process of evolution and a kind of protest against the imperialism etc.. but that's almost a hundred years ago.. today taking the style, motifs from the traditional art form makes no sense... also if one is so inspired by Thankha, Kalmakari, Worli, Madhubani, ..why not do it the right way: go to the real source, learn the techniques and grammar from a let say, a Thangka guru and follow it like all folk/traditional artists/craftsmen do? And create genuine folk forms? No, the contemporary artist after attending 4-5 years of art college training (learning mostly Western art, style, techniques etc) would go out and make atrocious copy of folk style and sell it off as 'contemporary art'!! It is cheating. Its so unfair as the folk, tribal artists don't command astronomical prices or respect like the 'Con' temporary artists do!!!

Music of Assam

Years ago we had to spend one night in a waiting room of Guwahati Railway Station.. my father with great difficulty procured a little corner for his family of five... we had just arrived after days of travelling in buses, trains et al from a very small Himalayan town to the far eastern plains of Brahmaputra. We had grown up there as Kumaonis... and now after 3 long years of childhood we were excited and very curious about Assam and Goalpara, where ultimately we were to go..

As we camped in the waiting room for the night, we heard sound of a strange language, close to my mother tongue Bangla but their 'स' being 'ह' it sounded exotic. Being away in the Himalayas we were more familiar with Komaoni or Hindi.

We children were very exited to be in a new place. Though growing up in the mountains was very adventurous.. but we being very adventurous children had exhausted all avenues around our Himalayan hamlet..

As night fell and after eating a sumptuous meal of rice and दाल we went off to sleep. It has been days since we left our home of 3 years behind and have been travelling with all our belongings in trucks, buses and trains.. it was one of the longest journey for us. I remember my father being very upset with a group of young men in the waiting room.. he even went to complain about their boisterous behaviour etc. Later in the night as we slept soundly.. I awakened by strain of someone's singing.. a strange tune, sung in a strange exotic language. The tune was lilting and catchy, dramatic... even to my young ears they sounded very different.

It didn't take me much long to know it was the music of Assam.. songs of Bhupen Hazarika!!