| | INDIA TODAY | CURRENT ISSUE NOVEMBER 13, 2006 | | | | SOCIETY & THE ARTS: CHARITY AUCTION |  | | | Eminent Strokes
With India on Canvas, Aman Nath has managed to turn celebrity art buyers into brush-weilding artists themselves. Is this embarassment of riches the new face of art? | | | By S. Kalidas | | |  | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | CORUS HUES: Laxman Shreshtha in his studio with Ratan Tata | | If the post-modernists upturned the very premise of "artistry" on its head and yet made their "art practice" immensely fashionable, Aman Nath, author, aesthete and now curator of the charity art auction India on Canvas, has gone one step further. He has managed to turn art buyers into brush-weilding artists. Slated for November 10 at the British High Commissioner's residence in Delhi is a very special art auction. Ian Mcginlay of the international auction house The Christie's, will put under the hammer 101 works of art done jointly by some of the most famous Indian artists and their celebrity admirers from the walks of politics, business and films. | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | DIFFERENT STROKES: (Above) P Chidambaram with Anjolie Ela Menon; (below) Sunil Mittal with Amitava Das |  | | So if you want to pick up an original work done by P. Chidambaram and Anjolie Ela Menon or one by Ratan Tata and Laxman Shreshtha you know which direction to head for. The artists (mostly) are thrilled to rub shoulders with and play mentor to the celebs who were till now distant patrons. "I thought it would be a good experience to work with someone great in another field and I am very happy that it was an interesting experience," says Manu Parekh who was paired with Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel. The celebrities, too, were happy to contribute through art to a deserving charity (Khushi, the NGO for which the auction is being held, is promoted by ex-cricketer Kapil Dev). Listen to Ratan Tata: "It was great to be a chela (disciple) for a change." Or to Suresh Nanda of Claridges Hotel, who said: "I feel great having worked with Shobha Broota. She said there is an artist in every human being; it only has to be unleashed. Our work has come out very nice!" No doubt the joint participation of both these categories will ensure that the works so produced will fetch prices suitable with their makers' stature. As business plans go, this one beats them all.
| | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | MINISTERIAL BRUSH: (clockwise from top left) Jaysri Burman and Renuka Chowdhury; Nath; Patel and Manu Parekh | | But business plans apart, there are some critics and artists who are sure to raise aesthetic, ethical and sociological questions about the consequences of this unusual marriage of talents. As Nath admits in his evocatively written and passionately argued essay in the auction catalogue, "Even though I was not suggesting that artists and non-artists be seen at par, Geeta Kapur (eminent critic) cautioned that a 'sameness' may make light of all art practice. She reiterated that differences of vocational modes should be highlighted in society just as the parity of values is differentiated." Or Neville Tulli, who runs India's first specialist auction house Osians, taunting Nath that he wanted to come for the auction only to see "if there was any art produced in this exercise". Counters Nath: "What was yesterday called art is, at a pinch, now called investment. With this, the onus of noblesse oblige is also taken on by the artists. They become the direct patrons of charity as their paintings become instant largesse for the less fortunate...If painters can do business in broad daylight, must those in business take permission before they can paint?" Besides, it can be argued that history is replete with instances where the patron practised art making himself. Emperor Jehangir was a fine painter of miniatures, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh an excellent composer. In Europe, the Medicis of Italy apart, Adolf Hitler was a serious painter. However, the vital difference is that all these powerful patrons were serious enough about their art practice to keep at it, regardless of the vagaries of the market.
| | History is replete with instances where patrons practised art themselves, like Jehangir and Wajid Ali Shah | | In the early 1980s, once my late father J. Swaminathan was making out a case for doing away with import duties on art materials (in those days paints, canvas, paint brushes all had to be imported or smuggled into the country) to the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Before she could reply, her son Sanjay shot a query: "Why should we do away with taxes on art material? At least an industrialist when given such benefits employs a number of poor people in his factory. What does an artist do that is not for his own benefit?" Swaminathan replied, "Well, if an industrialist sets out to make a car and for some reason fails, he shuts down the factory and starts selling potatoes. An artist, sir, whether a success or a failure, can only paint." Amen. Index
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