The Terre Offshore exhibition brings together the works of 11 artists from Reunion Island
You know from the moment you step in and see a metre-long work of art poised on bright red-striped plastic buckets — that you have entered the topsy-turvy world of artists. A word of advice for those who venture into this territory: leave all preconceptions of art outside the door. You won’t find place for them in here.
In India, as part of the Bonjour India Festival of France, the Terre Offshore exhibition curated by Francine Méoule brings together the works of 11 independent artists from Reunion Island. Four among them are here for the Chennai segment of the exhibition, giving us their take on the world through mixed mediums of contemporary art: from video installations to coloured inks on paper, and even adhesive on canvas.
A fragment of Europe
Try and pinpoint Reunion Island on the map, and you will be able to do just that. The miniscule speck of land to the East of Madagascar has the intriguing particularity of being a “fragment of Europe in the middle of the Indian Ocean”, and is as fascinating in its ethnic divergence as in its defiance of geographical norms. The once uninhabited island was occupied by the French in the mid-1600s, and was populated over the years by a mix of ethnicities. Its contemporary culture is rooted in African, Indian, Chinese, and French traditions, and its citizens are bound together by the shared Creole language. Such a crucible of cultures would form the classic breeding ground for art’s favourite musing, the agonising question of identity — or so we may expect.
Surprisingly, and yet refreshingly, the exhibition does not harp on issues of identity and on the continuous search thereof. It is certainly among the concerns of some, for as artist Jack Beng-Thi explains: “He who doesn’t know his history is always perturbed, and art has always been a means of expressing history”. But the younger generation of artists have different preoccupations. “Identity was largely questioned by artists of Reunion Island in the Seventies,” says Stefan Barniche. “I see myself as being in suspension, perhaps lost, but positively so, and have digested the question of identity. I deal with its more global aspect, its imprecision, its passages in form, and its continuous gliding, as reflected in my use of mixed mediums of art.”
Other artists simply draw from the contemporary world around them, and deal with direct, everyday observations. “I explore the relationship between colours, notions of disguise and revelation, and the interaction between living beings, in my work”, explains young artist, Gabrielle Manglou. “When the wind touches a leaf, there is life in that movement, and that is what I try and express through my drawings, sculptures, and videos.” There are others who examine the mechanics of space and time. Artist Yohann Quëland de Saint-Pern uses audio-visual displays to enquire into man’s relation to his geographical, physical, and mental surroundings. “I try and understand why we construct houses in one way in Reunion Island, in another way in France, and in a third way in India. My work is mainly concerned with geography, territories, and the body as the first interface with others.”
An array of ideas depicted through multiple forms, all challenging spectators to shed the preconceived ideas they might have of syncretic art, and interpret what they see before them through a fresh lens. As art critic Bernard Marcadé contends, Terre Offshore suggests “an extra-territorial dimension, a stage open to new adventures, and therefore, a platform to create new things”. A new experience of art is what you should come prepared for then — and you just might save yourself from tripping over the flat-screen TV lying on the floor, as you enter the exhibition.
The Terre Offshore-Reunion Island exhibition is on at Apparao Galleries until February 4. For details, call 28279803 or 28271477.
Archive for January, 2010
While Saatchi’s new show of Indian art, The Empire Strikes Back, is a talking point in London, the market for Indian art has taken some serious hits. At the height of the boom this was fever-hot, as speculators shifted from Chinese contemporary (which had become very expensive) into Indian art. Prices soared and art funds mushroomed, led by Osian’s, India’s oldest art auction house. Its Rs100 crore (£13m) fund was launched in 2006; among those that followed was the Copal Art fund, which sold investors art based on a price-per-square-foot. Between 2006 and 2008, according to the Indian business newspaper Livemint, some Rs300 crore was invested in art.
But recently Indian artists have, in some cases, lost over 70 per cent of their value, and some funds are failing to deliver promised returns. Osian’s fund closed at the end of last year, but not all investors have been paid; founder Neville Tuli told the FT that they will be paid by February 24 and admitted that the fund was “disappointing”. Osian’s is also mired in a US-based lawsuit with Christie’s, which it accuses of failing to deliver art it had bought; Menaka Kumari Shah, India representative of the firm, said: “We have been seeking to recover a significant debt from an Osian-related party for more than one year. Christie’s intends to review all of its legal remedies in response to these baseless allegations.”
The problem is not confined to art funds; Bodhi Art, one of India’s most flamboyant galleries, has become the highest-profile victim of the bust. At the height of its glory, the gallery had outlets in Berlin, Singapore, New York, Mumbai and New Delhi; now all are closed except Mumbai.
Next week, impressionist and modern art goes under the hammer in London. Christie’s goes first, on Tuesday evening with a 86-lot sale estimated at up to £80m, but the story is more about Sotheby’s sale on Wednesday. This is smaller, with 39 lots but a higher target of £102m, and it boasts three surefire winners. Giacometti’s imposing sculpture “L’Homme qui marche”, a lifetime cast from 1961 estimated at £12m-£18m, could shatter the world record for the artist. It is being sold by the German-based Dresdner, which was bought by Commerzbank last year. Cézanne’s “Pichet et fruits sur une table” (1893-94) is one of the artist’s highly desirable still lifes of apples and while it is unlikely to break the world record for Cézanne (£36.9m, made in 1999) it should still do very well at its estimate of £10m-£15m. The third cracker is a recently restituted Klimt landscape, “Kirche in Cassone” (1913), a highly attractive work with broad appeal, estimated at £12m-£18m.
Auction house specialists report a distinct loosening up of vendors’ willingness to sell, compared to last year. “We’re not talking about a return to boom times yet,” says Christie’s specialist Olivier Camu, “but buyers are buzzing around and general confidence is up.”
While some galleries may be downsizing, the international dealership Hauser & Wirth is expanding in the heart of Mayfair. The gallery has bagged the entire ground floor at 23 Savile Row, site of the former English Heritage headquarters. It will open this autumn with an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois. H&W will use the 12,500 sq ft space for larger shows, much as it did in Coppermill, the Shoreditch building where it exhibited Christoph Büchel and Martin Creed. The new gallery will bring H&W’s count of exhibition spaces to five, with New York, Zurich and three in London (its small Swallow Street space will be abandoned). So: Gagosian, eight; H&W, five, so far. The FT will publish an interview with H&W president Iwan Wirth in its collecting supplement on February 27.
“Nowhereville, USA” is one unkind description of Bentonville, Arkansas, but the town (pop: 20,000) boasts the headquarters of the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. And next year it will see the opening of Crystal Bridges museum, a $50m extravaganza masterminded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton (the sixth-richest American, says Forbes), who has been avidly collecting American art for 20 years. Some of her acquisitions have been controversial, for example when she swooped on Asher Durand’s landscape “Kindred Spirits” (1849) in a sealed-bid deal worth about $35m, whisking it away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Washington, who wanted to keep the painting in public ownership. And she has made a $30m deal with the financially troubled Fisk University in Tennessee over shared ownership of 101 works from the Alfred Stieglitz collection, donated to the university by his estate, subject to a pending appeal by the Georgia O’Keeffe museum.
Crystal Bridges’ latest acquisition is less controversial: Walton Ford’s “The Island”, acquired from New York dealer Paul Kasmin for a sum “well in excess of $600,000”, according to the gallery. It is on display at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (until May 24) while waiting for the completion of its new home.
And never the twain shall meet…Investors and collectors»
Investors and collectors are different species. Which one of these are you?
For some time they had become interchangeable, the collector and investor in art, but as the market fragmented (when it was expected to consolidate), their domains have become exclusive of each other. The current environment is seen as buoyant for the collector as good quality works have returned to the market. For the investor, though, things look just a little grim, particularly since Forbes India’s damaging story on an art fund by Osian’s head Neville Tuli, it turns out, was artificially inflated before it bombed.
Here, then, are the differences between a collector and an investor. Read it with a pinch of salt.
COLLECTOR
# Is interested in particular works by an artist, or specific works of art.
# Would prefer the value of collected art to increase.
# Should the value of a painting or an artist move up, it’s fortuitous, a talking point in a group.
# Collecting is focused purely or loosely on a genre, period, medium, theme or specific artist(s).
# May occasionally sell works to enhance the perceived or academic value of a collection, or to turn around ill-chosen works.
# The collector is a constant visitor at galleries, artists’ openings, art fairs, talks and seminars.
# Collectors come as couples, are often women and only sometimes men. Institutions collect as well.
# Will invariably talk about art on social occasions — it’s a passion.
# Will likely beg, borrow or steal to buy a work they especially like.
# Collateral? “Well, I have this house…”
# If investments in art don’t rise, you won’t be entirely unhappy — there’s the art, at least, that you’d rather have.
# Unlikely to invest in an art fund: “I’d rather have the art.”
# Most likely to say: “Wow! That’s a treat. How much will it cost me?”
# Least likely to say: “I have too much art, I must get rid of some of it.”
# Will you look at that Souza!”
INVESTOR
# Has little or no interest in either an artist or specific works of art.
# Would definitely want the value of art in which he is invested to increase.
# The value of art must definitely move up, but it’s hardly a talking point.
# Collecting is driven purely by an index that factors in hedging of risks.
# Will definitely sell works as soon as the value is realised, as per a chalked-out strategy.
# The investor is rarely sighted at art events other than at talkathons about investment and value.
# Investors are more likely to be men (and sometimes women) from the financial world. Prefer institutional investing.
# Will never talk about art on social occasions — it’s just an investment.
# Will likely organise institutional funding for any purchase.
# The collateral is the art.
# If investments don’t rise, you’ll be anxious – owning the art is poor consolation and a reminder of your failure.
# Likely to invest in an art fund: “provided there is a guarantee of at least the principal and interest”.
# Most likely to say: “I don’t care who painted it, tell me how much it will fetch me three years from now.”
# Least likely to say: “I have too much money, I could buy art with some of it.”
# “Souza who?”
There hasn’t been anything of its sort in Chennai in nearly three decades. National Art Week, which concludes today, saw senior Indian artists from across the country come together and four iconic cultural institutions — Lalit Kala Akademi, Kalakshetra, Cholamandal Artists’ Village and DakshinaChitra — join hands in a unique celebration of art.
“It was an attempt by the Lalit Kala Akademi to unite the different cultural and art institutions in the city,” said Rm. Palaniappan, regional secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi. “Generally, we all tend to function separately, but this time everyone accepted the proposal without hesitation.”
From January 18 onwards, camps in print-making, sculpture, painting and ceramics were conducted at the four institutions, with the artists of each visiting one another at the different locations and interacting with young, up-and-coming artistes of the city as well.
“Most of us work in the isolation of our studios, so this sort of opportunity to interact not only with artists in our own field but from others too was fantastic,” says Manisha Bhattacharya from New Delhi, who participated in the ceramic camp at Lalit Kala. “To suddenly be part of camps with artists I had grown up idolising, such as K. Laxma Goud or Dakshinamoorthy, was an honour.”
For Akhilesh, the renowned indian painter from Bhopal, it was almost like an “exchange programme.” “It was a chance to see, discuss our personal ways of looking at art, and learn from the way others work,” says the senior artist who was part of the painting camp conducted at DakshinaChitra. “I was particularly keen to look at the work of young artists in the city, and visited the group at Lalit Kala. What was interesting was the independence of their identity and the diversity of their expression, in spite of working together.”
This year also saw the Lalit Kala Akademi’s private collection of artworks from five years of camps and workshops in the region on display at their premises. The exhibition, concluding today, features a gorgeous collection of paintings, ceramics, sculptures and graphics in a variety of styles reflective of different regional schools and the artists’ own personal visions. A brilliant mix of colours, textures and media, this collection truly serves as a compendium of creativity for the region.
Looking ahead, Lalit Kala Akademi hopes to make National Art Week an annual event, not only in Chennai but in other cities as well, as a nationwide celebration of art and creativity. “In addition, we want to extend the format to include the city’s art galleries and the corporations that support art, and add symposiums, curated exhibitions and retrospectives of senior artists to the roster of events,” says Palaniappan.
Top 10 artists for the next decade
MF Husain
The Indian master is unparalleled in his artistic depth, breadth and output. Husain is where most collections begin and end. The decade ahead will only further cement his status as an artistic leader in India and an ambassador for Indian art throughout the world.
FN Souza (1924-2002)
As the founder of the Progressive Artist Group, Souza was the intellectual fount that brought diverse artists ranging from Husain to Raza together to create a new vanguard for Indian art. The artist and his works are very much the embodiment of passion, as alternately a bon vivant or an enfant terrible, who was obsessed with women, nature and religion. There is so much still left to discover about Souza whose operatic life could influence future artists and writers for generations.
VS Gaitonde (1924-2001)
With so few works readily available from a lifetime of solitary painting endeavour, Gaitonde may not be as well known as his contemporaries but amongst the cognoscenti, he is considered a sublime master whose style cannot be replicated. There is no one else that has the ability to render fire, air and mist from ether into two dimensions. While I would be curious to analyse his work scientifically to see what gives his painting its characteristic luminescent glow, I also very much enjoy the simple pleasures of sitting in front of my work in quiet contemplation.
Manjit Bawa
He may be better known for his charming works that juxtapose bold colour planes with whimsical figures and animals that continue to grow in popularity but there is another side of Bawa’s works that appeal to me. He is capable of extremely fine draughtsmanship and powerful imagery that has a socio-political bent. Though under the radar at the moment, more attention is being paid to his entire body of work following his recent passing.
Atul Dodiya
He is one of the most talented, perfectionist and intellectual painters of our time. He bridges the generations from the Progressives to the youngest artists coming out of art school today, the latter of whom owe him a stylistic debt as one of the first artists bring a post-modern aesthetic into Indian art. While his style is mercurial, his works always surprise. Atul Dodiya will grow in greater esteem as the decade continues.
Tyeb Mehta
I envision that within the next decade the curatorial and collecting demand for Tyeb Mehta’s work will increase exponentially now that he has unfortunately passed on. His meticulously rendered paintings are homages to the downtrodden of our society. In contrast to these works, with his series of Hindu goddesses, he exhibits a deep understanding of classical Indian texts and philosophies that one does not see too often in current contemporary art practices.
Arpita Singh
Like the artist herself who maintains a demure façade, Arpita Singh’s works with their pastel candy colours look benign. But that is only until one sees more closely the strong subject matter and violent brushstrokes that give her works a raw intensity in an otherwise domestic or feminine scene. As a successful artist working in a male-dominated field, she inspires legions of followers and students for being a great painter in her own right.
Rameshwar Broota
One should say that Broota is almost sculptural in his highly individualised artistic technique of scraping layers and creating works by removing paint. Having a relatively small body of work will only makes his appeal stronger. In some of his early works which I have, I see humour and subversiveness in how he views society and its inequities. His recent works have philosophical underpinnings about nature, man, beast and universe that to me begin a visual dialogue about humankind and existence.
Jitish Kallat
As a young artist who has achieved much during a relatively short career, Jitish Kallat is extremely driven. I think many are drawn to his level of technical proficiency along with the urban themes that underlie his recent works. The sprawling city, its classes and underclasses in a jumbled explosion of line and colour are reflections of chaotic times in India where Jitish Kallat serves as a chronicler of the moment.
V Ramesh
A painters painter, V Ramesh’s works are rooted and he uses metaphorical allegory to emphasise the ides of importance of the Human Body. One of the art worlds’ better kept secrets!
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“Kalpana”, anIndian art exhibition of 29 digitally produced prints of well-known paintings of eminent Indian artistes representing human figure forms and created over a span of more than a century has opened in this Kazakhstan capital.
Starting with Jamini Roy, the exhibition also includes the works of Amrita Shergil, M F Husain, F N Souza and Krishen Khanna, as well as some of the more contemporary and current artistes like Anjolie Ela Menon, Manjit Bawa and Arpana Caur.
“The paintings display the vibrancy and dynamism of Indian art during the 20th century,” said a statement from the Indian Embassy here that has organised the exhibition.
“The exhibition represents an underlying emphathetical harmony in the aesthetic stimulus of Indian art and the seamless manner in which several artistic influences belonging to the traditional and modern styles have coalesced over the last century,” the statement added.
The exhibition was inaugurated on Tuesday by Indian Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar at a glittering ceremony attended by a cross-section of lovers and admirers of Indian art and culture including members of the Kazakh parliament as well as several ambassadors from countries like Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Romania, Spain, Austria and Italy.Speaking on the occasion, Sajjanhar said that the exhibition “represents the completion of a productive and fruitful year of expansion in bilateral relations since the visit of President (Nursultan) Nazarbayev to India as the chief guest at our 60th Republic Day celebrations in January 2009.”
He pointed out that the last one year has seen significant deepening of engagement through several events organised by the Embassy like the India-Expo in Almaty in May 2009 and two grand gala concerts of Indian Classical Dances and Music in Astana and previous capital Almaty and in November 2009.
Several contracts and agreements to further enhance and promote bilateral economic and commercial cooperation have been signed between companies of the two countries during this period.
Sajjanhar also expressed the hope that the exhibition of paintings by 14 eminent artistes of India would further strengthen people-to-people contact and promote understanding and cooperation between India and Kazakhstan.
The youth icons of National Hockey selected for the international competition created of an uproar demanding their pending package just after the finish of National youth festival which is a matter of concern.
Internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik from Orissa appeal to save our National game through his sand sculpture, by appealing both the members of Indian Hockey federation and players to settle the matters soon giving due emphasis to the players demand. Also he appeals to all corners to save the fame of the Indian Hockey “our National Game” giving equal treatment with the Indian Cricket.
The state of Orissa is a producer of best hockey players of International standard like Dillip Tirky, Lzarus Barla, Ignes Tirky, Probodh Tirky and others.
Pattnaik created two crossed hockey sticks with ball on sand at Puri beach of Orissa. He took 5 hours and use 8 tones of sand and also his students joins hand to create this sand image.
Before it Pattnaik participated different sport activities like World cup Cricket-1998 at London, FIFA World cup-2006 at Berlin, Doha Asian game etc. He has so far participated in more than 39 international sand sculpture championships across the world and won many awards for the country.
Kartick Chandra Pyne
Graduating from Govt. College of Art & Craft, he went on to win Academy of Fine Arts Award in 1966,’69, ’73 and ’76 followed by Mahakoshal Kala Parishad Prize in ’73 and ’74. Pyne was one of the 100 artists chosen at ‘Hundred years of Asian Art’ (1861-1961), an exhibition organised by the Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan. But most of all it should also be known that he was one of the three painters who introduced surrealism in India. His works can be found at NGMA, New Delhi, Air India, Mumbai, Govt. of West Bengal Gallery, Birla Academy of Art and Culture and with several eminent private collectors in India, England, Italy, Japan, USA, Germany, UNESCO, Thailand and Singapore
Pyne is no stranger to struggle. Cousin of renowned painter Ganesh Pyne, his first watercolour sold for a paltry Rs 40 at a khola mela (open-air fair) in Kolkata in 1956. He finally found ‘fame’ only after his work Bird with Cage, painted and sold by Pyne in the 1970s for merely a couple of thousand rupees, fetched $10,200 (Rs 4.70 lakh) at a Sotheby’s auction in New York last September.
Now, the media considers him ‘arrived’. But Pyne refuses to be swept off his feet by the sudden interest from art dealers and gallery owners – he knows all too well how unpredictable life can be. And he says that he will never take it for granted again.
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Francis Newton Souza
Francis Newton Souza was born in the year 1924 in Saligao, a small town in the state of Goa. Tragedy struck him at a very young age, when he lost his father. He was also bogged down by a serious attack of small pox. Such incidents provoked him to create his own niche in this world. Francis Newton Souza took admission into the Sir J.J. School of Art of Mumbai. But, was expelled for participating in the Quit India Movement. Thereafter, he founded Progressive Artist’s Movement in 1947, along with S.H. Raza, M.F, Hussain, K.H. Ara, etc. F.N. Souza’s biography and life history tells us that he left the country in 1949 and went to London to pursue his interest in painting. After struggling for a few years, he finally received recognition in the 1950′s with his solo exhibition at the ‘Gallery One’ in London. Around the same time, his autobiographical essay ‘Nirvana of a Maggot’ was published. In 1959, another one of his books ‘Words and Lines’ was published and it received literary recognition. In the year 1967, F.N. Souza migrated to the New York City in America. He participated in the ‘Commonwealth Artists of Fame’ exhibition in London in 1977. Souza participated in an exhibition in Detroit in 1968. His retrospectives were held in New Delhi and Mumbai in 1987. Francis Newton Souza also had shows at the ‘Indus Gallery’ of Karachi in 1988 and the ‘Bose Pacia Modern’ of New York in 1998. He breathed his last in the year 2002. Presently, the paintings of F.N. Souza adorn the Tate Gallery of London and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi. His Style The subjects covered in the paintings of Francis Newton Souza comprise of still life, landscape, nudes, icons of Christianity, etc. One of the most recurring themes is that of the conflicts in a man-woman relationship. However, the figures have been deliberately distorted and reveal an uninhibited and realistic style. Souza was a rebel and non-conformist and these views reflect in his painting style also. At the same time, there is a visible influence of the folk art of Goa, the Renaissance paintings, landscapes of the 18th and 19th century Europe, etc.
His early work appears to be influenced by Western Art as well as Indian modernist traditions. Souza paintings are peopled with erotic female nudes, landscapes and Christian themes. Souza’s creative work revolves largely around his Roman Catholic background as well as his hostility towards it. Souza seems to have been forever searching for novelty.Souza abhorred convention and this element figured prominently in his unrestrained and defiant brush as it recreating his own commandments for a perfect civilization and enlightened art.
His pen was equally potent. He penned several articles and publications which dealt with diverse subjects and included political issues and scientific inquests. He won the Guggenheim International Award in 1958. Writing about himself, he goes into the sequence of death, creation, endeavor, failure, alcoholism and sobriety.His thinking was a medley of diverse influences: the folk art of native Goa, the upbeat stance of the Catholic church, the grandiose portraiture of Renaissance Europe and the landscape art of the 18th and 19th century. He kept track of the writings of Einstein, Darwin and Hawking, and mixed science and art to create canvases peopled with largely disturbing, powerful images.
Souza was an international figure where art was concerned and displayed his work at exhibitions in France, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, USA, Canada and India. He had been represented in important group shows featuring themes from religion to erotic art and his collection are found in famed museums, to mention a few Israel to Australia to the Tate Gallery in London.
New York remained his domicile until his death in march 28, 2002.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber’s art charity was rapped by the Charity Commission yesterday for allowing the theatre impresario to recall its pictures to hang them privately at his homes or offices.
The commission said that it was satisfied that Lord Lloyd-Webber had paid a licence fee, or rent, for the paintings which was set by an independent valuer. But it criticised the charity for creating the impression that its multi-millionaire founder was personally benefiting from the charity.
The commission criticised the trustees’ decision to display painting of St Cecilia by John William Waterhouse at London’s Palace Theatre during the run of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Woman in White which it argued “enhanced this perception of private benefit to the founder”.
Its report said: “Such perceptions need to be appropriately managed by the trustees so as not to erode public trust and confidence in this charity and charities more generally.”
The investigation was also told that there had been occasions when paintings had been recalled while on public display, coinciding with dignitaries viewing Lord Lloyd-Webber’s private collection. The commission advised the trustees that paintings should not be recalled in this way as this was a private benefit.
However, the Commission found that there were clear benefits to the public from the charity both through the public display of the paintings at galleries and exhibitions and through the foundation’s website.
A spokeswoman for the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation said the charity had accepted and implemented all the recommendations put forward by the commission.
