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11/15/2005 - But Can He Paint a Bowl of Fruit? Looking at Contemporary Fine Art in India by Richard D. Connerney

RDC SOUTH ASIA Richard Connerney Phillips Talbot Fellow studying influence impact religion Indian society ICWA LETTERS Since Institute Current World Affairs Crane Rogers Foundation provided fellowships enable outstanding young professionals outside United States write about international areas issues An exempt operating foundation endowed Charles R Crane Institute supported contributions minded individuals foundations TRUSTEES Bryn Barnard Joseph Battat Mary Lynne Bird Steven Butler Sharon F Doorasamy Peter Geithner Gary Hartshorn Katherine Roth Kono Cheng Li Peter Bird Martin Dasa Obereigner David Z Robinson Carol Rose John Spencer Edmund Sutton HONORARY TRUSTEES David Elliot David Hapgood Pat M Holt Edwin S Munger Richard H Nolte Albert Ravenholt Phillips Talbot Institute Current World Affairs The Crane Rogers Foundation Four West Wheelock Street Hanover New Hampshire 03755 U S A But Can He Paint Bowl Fruit Looking Contemporary Fine Art India By Richard D Connerney NOVEMBER I person nostalgic about New York City scene After living eight years married artist I without qualifica I would happy I never attend another gallery opening another hotshot New York artist To honest I never acquired taste forms contemporary Whenever Deborah dragged gallery openings museum exhibitions studio events performances I spent night trying insult artists subway Brooklyn railing against I perceived pretentious buffoonery It I appreciate glasses champagne served certain openings I occasionally occasionally I seeds artistic genius hangi walls Williamsburg gallery And honest I attend lively parties interesting people It I aesthete I prefer Andrew Wyeth Andy Warhol I today cutting superstars either exasperating Matthew Barney revolting Damian Hirst Deborah patiently tried explain significance their valuable virtue ideas represent response including rants elicit Still I cannot wondering these video installation perfor mance artists comprise contemporary world could successfully represent fruit It moving India realize without avant The Lucknow garde inflame pretty What I would based artist Manishaa given Warhol Lalit Art Academy Annual Singh D Simon Art Exhibition Lucknow The collection rehashed century styles occasionally mixed Mughal influence This hodge podge aesthetics meshed varying degrees success Some seemed copied directly history textbook Deborah negative I She noted movements Pop installation mixed media video photography missing In short contained major influences informed years The other lacuna Lalit Art Academy irony The suffered earnestness exhausting A precious works managed lighten never atmosphere blown conscious importance This miasma pretentiousness briefly alleviated small playful sculptures Lucknow based artist Manishaa Singh His swine creatures intoxication emotion dissipated however briefly oppressive cloud gravitas gallery A weeks later attended another opening Lal Baradaari publicly funded gallery which artist covered walls portraits famous Bombay I attempt humor Deborah Perhaps artist claimed statement simply liked actor While there tographer Times India proached asked questions snapped photo Two later picture appeared Lucknow version Times India under caption Art Attack The accompanying article claimed Deborah found mixed usage charcoal pencil colours interest Although remem saying demand retraction The Mocktail Culture If Indian scene lacks thing today always From centuries In vibrant lively tradition miniature painting lasted until dissolution Mughal dynasty After Mutin British little effort preserve existing artistic traditions India without court patronage Indian eclipse Since Independence Indian struggled reform itself Attempts bring Indian limited A google Ganeshas After visiting number gallery openings Lucknow noticed inter esting trend The Hindu Ganesha ubiquitous His elephant headed everywhere imaginable style The popularity elephant headed subject contemporary stems unique position holds Hindu pantheon Ganesha worldly devotees neither eternal salvation lasting grace success business picious beginnings Displayed countertops painted above doorways Ganesha accessible earthy literally claims Ganesha formed filth goddess Artists depict Ga nesha satirical without fending Indian religious sensibilities D Simon success Delhi remains radar lectors critics Celebrated author V S Naipaul acterized problems Indian In A Wounded Civilization The Indian longer provide inspiration Indian present In matter artistic vision West dominant varied India continues imitative insecure glance advertisements illus trations Indian magazine India without living traditions ability incor porate adapt borrows seeks swallow whole For Naipaul Indian artists little decades since Inde pendence except imitate West Like somebody decorating Christ Indian artists reach Western world select certain ornaments arrange disconnected mishmash fluences What thing distinctly Deccan Like alcoholic mocktails Indians drinking weddings Indian potable lacks thentic spirit Naipaul comments longer wholly accurate however Outside Lucknow I found India struck original In creativity Rock Garden Nek Chand Chandigarh short years Independence Chandigarh modern Punjabi built 1950s Times India Lucknow Edition As Big Gets Naipaul V S India A Wounded Civilization Penguin London Pg RDC designed European architect Corbusier Orga nized block called sector The sectors separated featureless avenues cross other predictable regularity No ancient temples ruins disturb tedium A product Nehru India metropolis deliberate break socialist antasy where there Upper East Sides Brooklyn Heights Spanish Harlems Brownsvilles Sectors The restaurants Sector artificial Sector Such bleak consciously egalitarian place would expect original modern It however northern Chandigarh Sec untrained unheralded artist named Nek Chand India original works Independence Working undeveloped Mr Chand began collect discarded items arrange sculpture At first simply enjoyment never taken class pretensions creating lasting As ations became elaborate Walls broken dishes electrical appliances trees wires ranks imaginative sometimes uniden tifiable creatures Rock Garden fantastical other worldly ambiance In Chandigarh slated Sec development verge landscaping Nek Chand garden oblivion By however leaked strange secret garden Public outcry stayed wrecking authorities realizing Nek Chand Rock Garden potential tourist attraction declared sacro sanct Today thousands visitors wander through Nek Chand labyrinth wonder creations A friend before I visited Nek Chand Rock garden really appointing I could disagree Nek Chand rearranged banality urban something beautiful haunting suggestive No tably Rock Garden lacked clear influence traditional Indian culture Like Chandigarh itself Mr Chand unencumbered countless millennia Indian history something reflects brave world modern India Immersion Our Delhi scene began Anant gallery neighborhood Defense Colony where viewed entitled Immersions Delhi artist Atul Bhalla While there I found myself conversation Nuzhat Kazmi lecturer history Jamiya Miliya Islamiya prestigious Delhi university As often happens these situations I unable think anything insightful about which mostly consisted simple cement objects immersed square tanks water I considered suggesting goldfish rejected insensitive In I parroted Naipaul plaint Indian contemporary largely derivative It could found gallery New York City London I gesturing towards artist pieces There nothing distinctively Indian about Nuzhat proved Naipaul wrong She Immersion which ooked another large I missed something however The large oddly shaped actually artist representation mushk traditional water carcass sheep What seemed uneven lumps actually stumps sheep appeared crack which mushk water flows The piece contained number political social subtexts invisible untrained culturally Im mersion distinctly Indian undeniably contemporary When Deborah spoke Nuzhat Bachelor Fine Arts BFA students later Indian derivative nature again arose When Deborah asked students question about tionship between Western Indian received curiously contradictory answers On students insisted their uniquely Indian objected simply imitating West On other accepted international world speak language which Western If these students confused relationship Indian Western alone I RDC Western intellectuals among I number V S Naipaul often unfairly Indian artists ferent directions either imitate West closely imitate West enough If Western styles artists ignore West influences uneducated rustics Indian caught impossible position Contrary Naipaul observations Indian I Delhi Lucknow origi nality Moreover I sense somehow aesthetically wounded lingering fects British policies Many Asian cities including To Seoul Beijing emerged periods foreign occupation similar India Rajera vibrant scenes their Lon New York I doubted Indian really slavish submission dominant thetic West To shortcoming Indian scene imitation content Several galleries Delhi exhibited showed creativity West It direction these talents Nowhere Damian Hirst infamous bovine vivisection Annie Sprinkle display inner organs No South Asian Christo wrapped islands plastic Asian Serrano photographed Hindu version Piss Christ We looked depiction cruelty everyday banality modern urban culture spiri nausea commodity driven world In short Indian despite occasional stylistic phistication seemed fatally polite There attempt awaken viewer esque obscene exploration human misery abundantly avail India honest depiction India toiling rural masses Indian artists passed recognizable social protest critique favor postcard depictions village Sex never explored exploitative dimensions violence discreetly hidden below surface conceptual pieces struck timid often nerdy Most shows I tended India pretentiousness New York galleries without outrageous concepts provocative attitude wicked I suspect conservatism Indian symptom underlying social economic condi tions which Indian artists Contemporary neither court royalty masses arises urban middle class In India middle class still growing however Among bourgeoisie exist hegemony In family stifles artistic ambition before reaches turity Young people those economic means otherwise often their parents until riage Indians apart close relatives In environment naturally toward innocuous Rinky Dream In Indian artists under verse conditions wonder produce I first Rinky Pandit family comfortable story house village Manupura outside Benares She recently married first nuptials In wedding pictures stunningly beautiful Rinky stood short spectacled troll husband Immediately following wedding husband returned parents house await Rinky arrival Five months later Rinky still procrastinating She leave village birth unknown family liked Instead Rinky wanted artist In small studio behind parents house covered walls latest They folksy composi tions chronicling Benares historical themes In painting woman stood banks Ganges River stared aggressive monkey In another Queen Jhansi against British during Mutiny Rinky phisticated She seemed unaware perspective capable anatomical accuracy monkeys looked balls horses barrels Despite there playful exuberance nestness endearing A weeks later after returned Lucknow Rinky called friend phone She wanted Deborah portfolio I explained America avail She stayed anyway asking innumerable questions about artist America After became apparent Rinky really about Deborah portfolio I think wanted somebody village She looking escape family husband If could artist seemed saying independent spouse family Rinky story challenges developing successful scene India For financial reasons young artists often pursue Even there nowhere India knowledge lacks anything resembling artists ghetto For century New York scene germinated bohemian enclaves where young artists gather learn their trade Places Soho 1970s Williamsburg Both village artist changed INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Dumbo 1990s Hoboken South Bronx today define shape development modern America Characterized cheap vacant dustrial buildings artist ghettos provide geographi locus experimental alternative social whence artists critique react mainstream society Neither artists ghettos artistic culture exist recognizable It question could Pollack Pollack parents successfully badgered studying engineer Because these financial social realities artists India resemble mental image artist They often alienated bohemian imaginations Rather young artists often Rinky working precariously perched between college marriage bullied their parents renouncing their artistic aspirations favor somethin risky Can You Please Direct Urinal In modern started urinal Marcel Duchamp Fountain essentially disconnected pedestal created storm troversy Europe first exhibited The debate Fountain inspired definition meaning itself ongoing years later Most critics consider Duchamp creation pivotal history recently voted Most Influential Work Modern Art recent survey critics curators artists New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman recently remarked subject If there difference between Duchamp urinal ordinary urinal plumbing aside could nothing longer necessarily resided thing itself those interpreted thing Meaning resided aptly group This definition created group jority whose alienation greases exclusionary system The market depends spectacle people paying obscene amounts somebody derpants similar objects The existence exclusionary group turing society artistic coven mainstream society mirrors creates environment which temporary flourishes This necessary split between artistic groups groups occur Before Indian artists fulfill their roles gadflies pranksters social critics Sibyls economic social conditions create viable artistic subculture Only undertake creative experiments contemporary mands India underpants simply quires audacity vision believe enough patrons purchase See December World Best Piece Art A Urinal slate The Accidental Masterpiece Michael Kimmelman RDC About Deborah Deborah Simon studied San Francisco Art Institute Repin Art Institute Leningrad before finally earning MFA School Visual Arts Manhattan She shown numerous galleries California New York Deborah finds inspiration museums recently spent photographing osteological collections Harvard Yale Burke Museums In Asia spends keepers Lucknow Zoo Conservation Breed Center leopards pandas Darjeeling I interest traditional wildlife paint I combine isolation marginalization animals museums television inten experiences veterinary clinics direct between animal viewer Bronx Zoo exhibition department questions direct cause discomfort surprise about animals treated supposed format admire animal beauty I sculpting again Sculpture purity prevalent household shrines The chaos aggression Subcontinent temple carving average coming through response place Indian painting finding animals interact other paintings Underneath Pictured recent works The watercolor Four Discordant Acquaintances inspired Buddhist folktale heard while traveling Himalayas Deborah debted Lucknow Zoo Striped Hyena Clan Common Octopus Moon Jellyfish recently showed DFN Gallery New York City Common Octopus Moon Jellyfish watercolor Four Discordant Acquaintances watercolor INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIR S Current Fellows their Activities INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Richard D Connerney January INDIA A lecturer Philosophy Asian Religions Logic Rutgers University Rick Connerney spending years Phillips Talbot Fellow studying writing about intertwining religion culture politics India described former U S Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith functioning anarchy Rick B A M A religion Wheaton College University Hawaii respectively Kay Dilday October FRANCE MOROCCO An editor New York Times Op Ed years Kay holds M A Comparative International Politics Theory Graduate Center City University New York Bachelor degree English Literature Tufts University graduate Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands Cours Civilisation Sorbonne She traveled written Haiti began journalistic council reporter Somerville This Week Somerville MA Cristina Merrill June ROMANIA Born Bucharest Cristina moved Romania United States mother father Learning English retaining Romanian majored American History Harvard College there became captain women tennis She received Master degree Journalism New York University worked several U S publications Adweek New York Times spending years Romania watching emerge darkness Ceauscescu regime presumed light membership European Union NATO Nicholas Schmidle October IRAN A journalist researcher Pew Forum Religious Public Life Nick finishing Master program Comparative Regional Studies Middle East Central Asia American University Washington DC He studying inten Persian fiancee Rikki Bohan anticipation departure Iran after marriage autumn Andrew J Tabler February SYRIA LEBANON Andrew lived studied worked Middle East since Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellowship enabled begin Arabic language studies toward Master degree American University Cairo Following Master editorships Middle East Times Cairo Times before moving Turkey Lebanon Syria working Senior Editor Oxford Business Group correspondent Economist Intelligence Unit His ICWA fellowship bases Beirut Damascus where report Lebanese affairs Syrian reform Jill Winder July GERMANY With B A politics Whitman College Walla Walla WA Master degree Art Curating Bard College Annandale Hudson NY Jill ICWA Donors Fellow looking Germany through ideas viewpoints contemporary artists Before months intensive study German language Berlin Thomas J Watson Fellow looking communist practice cultural politics transition former Soviet Czech Republic Slovakia Poland Croatia Hungary Latvia Romania Slovenia Ukraine Institute Fellows chosen basis character previous experience promise They young professionals funded spend minimum years carrying designed programs study writing outside United States The Fellows required report their findings experiences field month They write subject formally informally The result unique reporting analysis periodic assessment interna tional events issues Author Connerney Richard D Title ICWA Letters South Asia ISSN Imprint Institute Current World Affairs Ha nover NH Material Type Serial Language English Frequency Monthly Other Regions East Asia The Americas Europe Russia Mideast North Africa Sub Saharan Africa ICWA Letters ISSN published Institute Current World Affairs Inc exempt operating foundation incorporated New York State offices located West Wheelock Street Hanover NH 03755 The letters provided charge members ICWA available libraries profes sional researchers subscription Phone Fax E Mail valley Web address Executive Director Peter Bird Martin Program Administrator Brent Jacobson Publications Design Management Ellen Kozak Institute Current World Af fairs The Crane Rogers Foundation This newsletter reprinted republished without express written consent Institute Cur World Affairs