The event of the week is the closing exhibition of the Kumar Gallery?s celebration of its existence of 50 years. The exhibition and the book published on the occasion, Spirit Set Free, were an important landmark in assessing and understanding Indian art without ignoring the fact that this reflects the vision of Virendra Kumar and later his brothers in supporting and projecting artists who are prominent today, not only in India, but all over the world.
What is striking in this exhibition, which reflects the choice of the Kumar brothers, is how many of the most significant artists of our contemporary art were part of the repertoire of the gallery. Starting with M F Husain, F N Souza, S H Raza and K H Ara of the firmament of the Bombay Group, we come to the lesser known but equally important artists like K S Kulkarni, Mohan Samant, K K Hebbar, Akbar Padamsee, Krishen Khanna and Ram Kumar.
Of the Bengal artists, there are works of Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Ramkinkar Baij, Gopal Ghose and Paritosh Sen. Of the Baroda artists, we have Nasreen Mohamedi, K G Subramaniyan and Ratan Parimoo. From the south, we have K C S Paniker, A P Santanaraj, and B Vithal and a work of noted Sri Lankan artist, George Keyt.
Delhi?s vibrant art scene has contributed Sailoz Mookherjea, Bimal Das Gupta, Satish Gujral, Anjolie Ela Menon, Arpana Caur, Paresh Maity, Jatin Das, Rameshwar Broota and Sangeeta Gupta. The neo-tantric artists are represented by Biren De, G R Santosh and Sohan Qadri. Sculpture is represented by Pradosh Das Gupta, Sankho Choudhury, K S Kulkarni, Meera Mukherjee and A Ramachandran. What is more important is that we have works of leading artists going back over five decades to be able to understand how the present success of our art all over came into being.
It is based on the freedom of expression a ?soft state? that is independent India allows its artists, with a democratic electoral system and a powerful anti-colonial tradition to back it up with that gave us a ruling class with a radical taste in art and culture. In addition, we have a powerful background of excellent craftsmanship going back 5000 years and a varied environment that provides an enormous amount of inspiration to be original. That this exhibition brings this reality to mind is the essence of its success.
This reality has prevented the mass from being ignored. They are the inspiration our contemporary art and design rely on, as was evident from Atul Johri?s exhibition at Delhi?s The Park where he exhibited designer products using the skill and workmanship of Tamil Nadu toy makers. Artists of today are willing to name craftspersons collaborating with them. This is the correct thing to do.
Indeed, it is the realisation of this reality of the artist as the spokesman of the millions of voters of Indian democracy that has made our artists some of the most generous people in our society in giving their best work to help others. This can be seen in Iloosh Ahluwalia?s exhibition of the works of 50 artists that opened in the Shangril La Hotel on October 25 and will go on to the Citibank, South Extension till November 10. The proceeds will go to thequake victims of Kashmir.
I hope buyers will respond generously to this cause, for ultimately the success of the art market depends on artists, galleries and buyers sharing attitudes and not only profits.
