From the ‘Concerns’ Desk ... November 2007

Celebrating Art with a few Riders 

www.artconcerns.com completes one year with this issue. And we invite you to celebrate its birthday.

When we came up with the first issue in November 2006 there was a widespread skepticism amongst the art community regarding its life as it did not have substantial financial back up. We raised funds from our pockets and many good Samaritans helped us by providing works for selling on commission basis.

There were some malicious efforts from a few artists to tarnish the image of www.artconcerns.com. They called us names and networked for non-cooperation. We believed and still believe in professionalism and work sincerely towards bringing out issues on the first day of every month, which till date has not faltered. The malicious critics have become history before they could make a history for themselves.

We have always tried to stick to the decent parameters of art history and criticism. Also we have done our best to keep the journalistic ethics intact. Our writers are qualified, informed, efficient and insightful. I take this opportunity to thank them all for contributing regularly.

As an editor, my effort has always been to find new art critics and writers. Often, to my dismay, I find fewer number of young people take to writing. Most of them are allured by the jobs and pay packets offered by the galleries who need professional documentation officers more than before. I will not blame these young people who are lured away by money. On the contrary I would like to suggest (as I have done several times before) that the cash rich private galleries and art establishments in India should come forward to support writers, both morally and financially.

Eminent establishments like Bodhi Art Gallery, Vadehra Art Gallery, Art India Magazine and so on give awards to artists but they all have failed to give assistance to art critics, historians and writers either through awards or scholarships. Taking my moral right as my strength, I demand that all the well established galleries in India should financially and morally support young art critics, historians and writers. A mere award or a temporary scholarship cannot achieve the target. They should be cultivated, guided and be provided with opportunities to write and express themselves fearlessly.

Vadehra Gallery had done an intensive workshop on art writing last year at the aegis of its Foundation for Contemporary Indian Art. A good attempt. But none from the establishment cared to ask the pertinent question: what after this workshop? A couple of them write for www.artconcerns.com. Where have the others gone? Why do they develop aversion for writing despite the intensive training provided to them? The root cause lies not in these workshops and the ensuing lethargy. It lies in the establishments where they are taught art history. They are taught to write assignments, with quotes from western theoreticians whom they do not understand a bit. It becomes a painstaking process and within these academies itself they develop an aversion for writing. They find it tedious and time consuming. That explains why, from my practical experience I can say it for sure, many writers fail to deliver quickly. Writing for them is a nightmare, with a bearded pedagogue breathing down their necks, demanding the facile appearance of scholarship and erudition. They bake half boiled eggs of art criticism in the form of assignments thanks to this. Catch them young and those who are interested in writing, not interested in RE-searching the iconography of Saptamatrika and the dress code of Ardhanareeshwara, give them full freedom to develop as art writers.

Abhishek Hazra, a new media visual artist and a writer with a commendable grasp on theories was recently a resident artist at the Khoj International Workshop in New Delhi. In this four artists’ residency, the theme was ‘Art and Science.’ Abhishek insisted me to go there and see his works. I went there and found myself completely ill-equipped to comprehend the works these artists had produced. While expressing my inability to write anything on those works to Abhishek and Rohini Daveshwar (another participating artist), I asked a question to myself: Am I qualified enough to write about Art and Science? I am not.

Here I would like to make a request to the Khoj International. Conduct workshops for those writers who are interested in New Media art. At Khoj, they appoint young critics as the ‘resident critic’ with each project they conduct there. But while reading their reports, I have found out that, these critics too carry the traditional methodology of art criticism and history as a baggage and they use the same jargons for explaining an art form, which radically differs from the traditional canons of art. Khoj could and should initiate programs for the new critics, not as resident critics but as learners and note this point, the teachers should not be the scholars of Aradhanareewsara and Saptamatrika.

When it comes to art criticism, many people including the artists consider ‘journalism’ a bad word. Though many of them enjoy journalistic attention on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, journalism is a bad notion for them. They say, journalism is superficial and lack in in-depth analysis. True. But there is a genre which is called ‘art journalism’. Art journalism in the long run provides research materials for real art historians. While accepting that all journalists are not good writers, I would say that journalism is about quickness; quickness in reacting, analyzing, revealing and articulating. Amongst art writers this special trait of quickness should be cultivated. Art journalism differs considerably from the daily churning of news journalism and art journalism does not demand this daily production. Let us shun the hypocrisy. Most of our lauded art critics have done art journalism at some point of their career and they can tell you how their ‘quickness’ has boosted their later career as full time art critics, historians and curators.

Many friends have asked me why I write too much (almost in every issue of artconcerns) on certain artists. “Do they grease your palms?” is the crux of their euphemistic queries. “Tell me about your collection,” some people ask me thinking that I would be taking one work from each artist about whom I write. May be this is a prevailing practice in Indian art scene. But I don’t have any art collection and I don’t take ‘bribes’ in the form of art work or money. I write on certain artists regularly because their works and lives inspire me to write. Some artists have the tendency to think that writing is a secondary job. It is not. You make painting with loads of meanings and the writers unpack it with their own creative tools. Both are creative practices and it is high time that the art writers, historians and critics get their due recognition.

When we started www.artconcerns.com, in one of the editorials I had expressed our intention to build a resource centre for the art writers. Many individuals and establishments since then have been helping me to build up a collection of catalogues, brochures and books related to art. I take this opportunity to request all the resourceful people to contribute towards making this dream a reality by sending your catalogues, brochures, books, CDs and any other research materials that you think would be of worth.

Once again, I take this opportunity to celebrate Indian contemporary art and all those people who are involved in this field in various capacities. I am privileged to celebrate the writers of www.artconcerns.com who have been relentlessly unpacking the happenings in and around Indian contemporary art for a wider audience who are dispersed all over the world.

Yours truly,

JohnyML