From the ‘Concerns’ Desk ... Ocrtober 2007

Artconcerns Effect

It is time to congratulate the Foundation for Indian Visual Arts (FICA), a sister organization of the New Delhi based Vadehra Art Gallery. Finally, it has decided to give away scholarships to the young and aspiring art critics, scholars and researchers who work in the field of Indian modern and contemporary art. The award carries a purse of Rs.50,000/- and the amount will be distributed for a period of six months.

I am proud to talk about this scholarship instituted by the FICA because, if the readers remember, I have been raising this issue for the last few years in various platforms. Contemporary art writers have been an ignored lot (especially the young and aspiring ones) for a long time and any organization that comes forward to support them with money and other research facilities should be appreciated. The FICA has now shown the way and I am sure that many will follow it with more lucrative and efficient scholarships and fellowships.

This award gives an additional responsibility to the art critics and writers in India. They need to excel in their respective areas of focus. Many young writers, closely following the footsteps of their teachers, have been trying to emulate a style of writing, which is too dense to understand and too convoluted to decipher. Without internalizing the theoretical notions peculiar to the West, many have been trying to incorporate theoretical arguments in their writings. Often these efforts end up in drawing a sarcastic smile from the reading public. It is time that the Indian art writers develop a style of writing, which is simple, lucid and theoretically sound, not in terms of jargons but in terms of forwarding new proposals and arguments.

Of late I have been looking at the write ups send out to me through the links of Venice Biennale and Documenta. Preoccupation with theories and jargon has become a complete no-no for all those art critics. They formulate their arguments in effective and communicable language with verve and personalized style. Art writers from different countries instill their personal experience and knowledge in their writings and it makes reading them a very pleasurable experience. None, especially in the Euro-American and Chinese art circuit start his/her writing with a quote from Georgie Agamben or Delueze and Guattari. Young Indian writers still take pride in starting something with a quotation, which they feel, would make their writings scholastic and sound. It is time that we need to do away with our illusions.

Indian art became operational in the international circuit not because of financial reasons alone. As I had argued in one of the cover stories earlier, the Indian artists’ decision to function from within the knowledge systems peculiar to the Indian experience, and their ability to correspond to the international situation are the major reasons for the appreciation that they get in the international forums. Indian art writing too should transcend the psychological block that it has come to have from the unmindful adoption of theoretical jargons.
There are several reasons for the young writers to rejoice. Their models like Ranjit Hoskote and Jitish Kallat have already changed their writing style, harking to the call of the times. Simplification and personalization, and also resorting to the Indian experience, do not mean that the art writers should rush to the rasa and bhava theories (to make it more authentic). Internalizing the contemporary discourse, whether it be of visual art, literature, film, cultural studies or politics (to name a few) and finding its resonance with the lived/living experience are the important things that the young writers always should aspire for their in their writings. And of course, the expansion of the parameters on a daily basis through added involvement, contemplation and desktop exercises.

Yours truly,

JohnyML