Going the Kochi Way - Contd..

The Madhavan Nair Foundation

Resurgence: Multiple effect kitsch

The Madhavan Nair Foundation, a private trust promoted by the pioneering marine products exporter, R Madhavan Nair, had showcased an art gallery along with a Kerala History Museum in its sprawling complex at Edapally, in the outskirts of Kochi city. Featuring a fabulous collection of reproductions and prints of classical and modern art along with some renowned originals, the MNF gallery was a trailblazer in opening new vistas for popular art appreciation.

Chitram Art Gallery, another private venture that flourished on MG Road, Ernakulam, is in a dire state today as it is forced to relocate from its present premises. A dream project of Ramachandran Nair, a former senior manager at Kerala Handicrafts Development Corporation, who had earlier launched a first of its kind House of Handlooms showroom in the private sector in Kochi, Chitram did exceedingly well in its initial years – bringing together an impressive group of up to 40 eminent artists from various parts of India for some of its annual exhibitions. Over the best part of its 14 years of existence, it had organised around 200 shows, featuring local as well as national and international artists.

“It’s indeed a bitter irony that we are facing a decline when the whole scene is hoting up,” says Ramachandran Nair. “When we came into the picture, there was no one to promote genuine artists here. We offered them a platform. We also facilitated cultural exchange and interaction between artists from various schools in the country. We had great support from architects, interior decorators and art collectors.” When the gallery started off, he says, the demand was for semi-abstract works, then the trend changed to more realistic mode. Foreigners, however, always prefer typical Kerala sceneries to keep as mementos, according to him.

That Chitram thrived so long while the much hyped Galleria Marichika on Chittoor Road, Ernakulam, sponsored by no less a powerhouse than The Times of India Group, had to down its shutters within a short span of time, is no minor miracle.

While many a curio shop masquerades as art gallery, the steady demise of a reputed gallery like Draavidia, which could once claim one of the largest gallery spaces in Fort Cochin and had consistently highlighted some of our brightest young painters and sculptors and hosted a number of multi-disciplinary shows of performing artistes, is truly heartbreaking.

Kochi studios: Proactive interventions

Rajan M. Krishnan, who did his post graduation in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University, Baroda in 1996, says: “We made a very conscious decision to come back home. We were determined that within five years’ time Kerala should be in the art map of India.”

“Most of our artists decide to go out and settle in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, or Baroda just because they cannot find in Kerala the infrastructure that can support their art. This was the case even with the great Raja Ravi Varma. We need to evolve an art scene and create a consciousness for the artist to sustain himself in a particular environment,” explains Rajan, who now reaches out to the world from his studio space on St Martin’s Road at Palarivattom, in Kochi.

Rajan is quick to point out the impressive line-up of Malayali artists who have created a buzz in the international scene. “For the most prestigious Asian Art Festival, held in Singapore, four artists from three Indian galleries were invited. Out of the four, three were Keralites!”

“True, the state suffers from a certain poverty. The common man here would easily identify a cricket player, but can’t recognise a good artist. We can’t blame anyone for it, except perhaps ourselves. Most of our well-established artists who made it big working outside Kerala come home occasionally like visitors and complain that nothing is alright here. They should rather look at what they have done to change the art scene of their home state. The only exception is Bose Krishnamachari in this regard”

A mutual support mechanism is in place when an artist gets certain infrastructural support like a studio to work, a gallery to show the work and market it, and in return the artist can give certain inputs to the gallery – like how to organise a show, what to do, who to contact. “We keep in touch with our peers and other contemporary artists working in various parts of the world, and can act as a link between them and the gallery here,” Rajan says.

Zakkir Hussain, who did his masters in Fine Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts in MS University, Baroda, traces his growth and success in Kochi “through certain historical linkage” and a few landmark shows like the Album of Paintings and the Album of Drawings at Draavidia Art Gallery in Fort Kochi, and the mega exhibit Double Enderes, conceptualised by Bose Krishnamachari that had its run in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kochi.

Zakkir has refurbished a spacious floor for a studio for himself and his artist-wife Sreeja in a grand old building overlooking the bustling spice trade centre on Bazaar Road in Mattancherry. For him, the search for his own individual expression, a language of his own has inevitably evolved out of a conflict between the radical, ideological exegeses, the social commitments of the 1990s and a conscious attempt of resistance to such conventional thinking.

“Of course I don’t negate any ideology, or my roots. But I believe that when it comes to problems that an individual faces in a society, Marxist ideology alone cannot give you the answers. The dialectics of feminism, dalits, environmental issues etc often call for individual expressions. My imageries thus emerge out of such conflicts,” Zakkir says.

CGH Earth: Online buzz

CGH Earth Gallery has added a whole new virtual dimension to the art market dynamics in Kerala. The business group that owns and operates a number of world-renowned “experience hotels,” like the Coconut Lagoon at Kumarakom, the Brunton Boatyard in Fort Cochin, and the “Palace for Ayurveda,” Kalari Kovilakom at Kollengode, had organised four art camps in 2005, and harvested 125 paintings to showcase at the CGH Earth Art Exhibition in March 2006 at Durbar Hall Art Centre.

Now, instead of presenting the art work mounted on gallery walls for interested buyers to look up, CGH Earth is showing them exclusively on their website for them to browse from anywhere in the world. Here, the gallery is not a physical entity, but a virtual presence that you can get a feel of at your leisure.

“Our objective is creating an enabling environment for the artist. We see this as a fulfilment of our core values of respect for environment, community and local ethos. Through a series of exhibitions we are trying to create awareness, appreciation and a market for art,” declares Jose Dominic, managing director, CGH Earth. The online gallery displays over 160 works from around 60 artists, cutting across age, region, gender and stylistic variations.

Now that the National Geographic has toasted Kerala as one of the “50 must-see destinations of a lifetime,” the emerging portends in contemporary art scene point towards a more graphic and dazzling sign turned towards Kochi.