WRITTEN BY RAVINDRA TRIPATHI I ANW I OCT 5, 2015 I 1st Published 0945
One may ask- there are so many group shows taking place in Delhi and other parts of the country. so what is special about this one, the ‘signature of diversity-3’? I would like to answer the question humbly. But first look at the history.
This is third in series of ‘Signature of Diversity’ shows organised by Marsi Arts and Culture. When two years back, the first exhibition in this series was held under this banner, the basic idea behind it was to provide space to the artists who have immense talent but are unable to register their presence at national level in contemporary art scene because of lack of support.
The art –establishment – the big and powerful galleries, government institutions, because of the pressure of art-market and other reasons - prefer big names. But one can’t deny the basic fact that the artist with new imaginations are coming to the fore and this is the demand of the time that art world pay attention towards them. This show is continuation of this concept and commitment.
This has become the cliché that contemporary art scene is plural. But it is very difficult to feel the plurality when one goes to the art-shows in metro art galleries. In most of the shows we notice same bunch of artists, mostly from city backgrounds. Here, in Signature of Diversity-3, you will find the artists from so called remote areas of India- Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, W. Bengal and Chhattisgarh.
All though, theoretically, there is nothing like remote area in the field of arts. Pablo Picasso was born in a small village of Spain and became ‘the artist’ of modern art. But nobody will deny that had he (Picasso) not arrived at Paris, the art capital of world that time, he might have remained a lesser known artist. So what is essential is that at the right and early time of creativity a artists should be given opportunity and recognition. The ‘Signature of Diversity -3’ is a humble endeavor regarding this.
The use of adjectives such as ‘young’ or ‘senior’ are prevalent in contemporary discourses; artists shouldn’t be judged according to their age. Every artist, whether he is young or old, is a contemporary practitioner. So the presence of two veterans- Bireswar Bhattacharjee and Shyam Sharma shouldn’t be considered incompatible with others. They are here to emphasize two things- first, they have shaped the talent of many generations of artists as teachers and their contributions should be recognized nationally; and second, they still practice in their genres and their art-works captivate the art lovers.
They are great artists and the art-world and art-establishment should understand this. There are other veterans- great teachers of art- in different parts of the country and I hope other curators, institutions, art-organizations will take cue from ‘signature of diversity-3’ and pay attention towards them. It is our duty to remember the veterans and at the same time to provide opportunity to the younger generation.
The other artist – Suman Kumar Singh, Tribhuvan Deo, Abhijit Pathak, J.P Tripathi, Sanju Das, Bipin Kumar, Kishore Sahu, Dinesh Ram, Rajendra Prasad, Chunaram Hembram, Sunil Modi, Manoj Kumar Bachchan, Ganesh Das, Ranjit Kumar, Chaita Basu Jena, Rakhi Kumari, Triveni Tiwari, Madan Gupta, Jai Kishore Singh, Rajendra Prasad Singh, Satyendra Kumar and Bijoy Kumar Jain – are from different age group. They practice different genres- some are abstract painters some do figurative painting.
There are sculptors, ceramic artists, photographer, installation- artist and printmakers. So it must be underlined here that there is presence of diversity here, which is our commitment. But the diversity is not in the context of genres and age- group. There are different points of view here. Those who prefer abstract, don’t have the same type of abstractions in their works and those are doing figurative are also adopting different ways. Various experimentations are taking place in contemporary art practices. There are many perspectives of art-making. Some of them are present here.
The exhibition Signature of Diversity was held from September 29 to October 03 at Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.
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