The Landscape Issue

This time Art India magazine concentrates on the depiction of landscapes in Indian art. From painting, installation, earth art to video art, the latest issue has covered almost all the areas of art where landscape plays a pivotal role. Besides, there are interesting features on art projects and interviews with eminent artists. Magazine editor Abhay Sardesai’s leading essay zooms in on the landscape depictions of Sudhir Patwardhan and argues that the artist in his paintings has become the chronicler of the suburban life of Mumbai. Sardesai, in the same essay also deals with the works of Rajan M.Krishnan, Minal Damani, Prajakta Palav, Manjunath Kamath, Jagannath Panda and Jyothi Basu.

Sandhya Bordewekar, in her essay titled ‘Relegated to the Background’ deals with the Baroda based artists’ inclination towards landscapes. Bordewekar has traced the historical lineage of this genre as a part of the regional art history of Gujarat. It is a pity that Roobina Karode had to start an article on Arpita Singh’s art by comparing the artist with her husband, Paramjit Singh. Meanwhile, Diksha Nath has not taken that burden of comparison while writing on the works of Paramjit Singh. Though Karode talks about the ‘patriarchal notion of family life’ one would be compelled to ask why the writer is tempted to think in the same lines in her article.

Jaideep V.G’s article on Umesh Madanahally and Sabitha T.P’s profiling of Subodh Kerkar provide an interesting reading. While Umesh militantly works for establishing site specific art in Karnataka, one can see how Subodh Kerkar does it with a lot of ease in Goa. Sangeeta Jindal’s interview with the USA based art collector Rajiv J Chaudhri does not enlighten other collectors as well as the readers as the interview looks like started and ended in one breath. Jerry Pinto’s interview with Baiju Parthan does not do justice to both the luminaries in conversation as this too looks like done in haste.

Iranna G.R would have run for cover when he found Jonathan Goodman opening an article on him with a sentence in capital letters, ‘BORN IN NEW DELHI G.R.IRANNA…’ The reader would have skipped it as a minor error (a major one for Iranna…I am sure) had it been published in a foreign journal. Now Art India magazine is our own magazine and it is one of the pioneering voices in the field and the reader does not expect an editorial flaw like this from the Art India desk. Above all G.R.Iranna is not a ‘budding talent’ from ‘somewhere’ in India.

Rich with a lot of lead features, reviews, international news and other interesting materials, Art India’s this issue obviously has shelf value. But I cannot resist asking this: why all these articles just sound like formatted and customized exhibition reviews? Why do they end abruptly? ‘City within the City’, an article by Meera Menezes presented under the general title ‘Art Affairs’ should have come as the centre piece of the magazine as the project in consideration was the one that dealt directly with the urban landscape in its severest conceptual terms. Meera Menezes comes out well when she writes about Atul Bhalla and she suddenly patronizes Gigi Scaria and forgets to talk about Himanshu Desai altogether.

Titled ‘Dilli Door Ast’, the project was conceptualized and articulated by Gigi Scaria. Khoj Residency Program partly funded it and Gigi expanded the project to accommodate Atul Bhalla and Himanshu Desai. Meera Menezes has all the right to say that Gigi is yet to find his visual vocabulary. Gigi tells her that his intention is not to make a ‘stereotypical video art’. The reader then wonders why Meera posits his works within the framework of the video art and ‘patronizes’. Some of the review writers also have come very harsh on the artists. Criticism should be severe but when one does it, there should be substantial reasons to do so.