Opinion Not Too Crafty

But to cut back to the past for a little,it was over a glass of wine,on that January night that photographer Ram Rehman remarked how extraordinary the exhibition is and wondered aloud why our modern and contemporary artists have not plugged more into India’s rich tradition,instead of turning to the West for inspiration. Pondering this one could raise a question — Are leading contemporary artists giving craft the wide berth and preferring instead to plug into popular culture or the traditions of High Modernism from Europe and America because craft comes with the baggage of being decorative and anti-intellectual?

One could argue that this is an ‘old’ debate,but given that today,traditional craftspersons like Warli painter Jivya Soma Mashe,Radha Sollur,the late Sona Bai and the tragic figure of Gond painter Jangra Singh Shyam,reinvented their art while still following the ‘old methods’,it is perhaps a good time to revisit this debate. While ‘artisans’ are looking at new ways of approaching the past,addressing new markets and the notion of making one-off art for collectors it may be worthy to pose another question — Are there fewer contemporary artists willing to follow traditional methods?

To begin with,the word Tradition itself is highly unclear. Whose tradition are we talking about — the Rajasthani Miniatures,the Mughal Miniatures,the Patachitra Pats,the Gond Paintings,the Chola Bronzes,The shadow puppets of Kerala or Bengal or Maharashtra? Clearly,we do not have a meta narrative in craft to draw from when it comes to tradition because in India,each region and state is characterised by its indigenous art forms.

On the second count,it would not be entirely true to say that Modern and Contemporary Indian artists were left untouched by forms of ‘tradition’. The Bengal Revivalists Movement (1907-1947) was one case in point where the Tagore brothers made an organised attempt to revive and revisit the miniatures. Jamini Roy,too,made his mark by reinventing,in this instance,the Kalighat Pats. The Cholamandal artist village in Tamil Nadu,founded by KCS Paniker,in 1966,was the cornerstone of the Modern Madras Movement and evolved a truly international dialogue around community-based art located within the local language of batik,terracotta,stone and bronze. And in the 1970s,artist KG Subramanyan worked tirelessly towards breaking down the barriers between high art and craft when he turned his own hand to weaving and toy making.

However,we also know that the Progressive Artist Group (PAG),a very vocal and prominent group of artists who banded together in Bombay in 1947,was strident about moving ‘forward’. This meant embracing Modernism and not looking backward at the past through a nostalgic lens. They decried the very notion of returning to tradition. Ironically though M F Husain was a billboard painter and a furniture designer before he donned the mantle of high art and he continues to draw on and reinvent folk elements into his work,as do many ‘Modern’ painters of his or subsequent generations,like the Bengali master of tempera Ganesh Pyne or even the immortal modernist Amirta Sher- Gil who,after she had worked European Impressionist Paul Gauguin out of her system,turned to the paintings of Ajanta Ellora and the Pahari Miniatures for inspiration.

More recently,young artist Soumen Bhowmik is holding a virtual exhibition on Facebook,and has worked with elements of craft in his otherwise contemporary canvas. He makes clear references to the masks and Bengali folk art forms. Priced between Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000,they are fast-selling,and one of the primary reasons is that the works are an interesting balance of the bizarre dark world of tragic clowns and the happy world of folk tigers and elephants.

To conclude,Indian’s Modern and Contemporary artists are not that far removed from their own traditions while traditional artists are inching closer to using newer formats like video to express something as traditional as the miniatures. Perhaps,it is time to go out and buy some quality,one-off ‘craft’ works before they become unaffordable.