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Art and the Middle Class! (Part 7)
Through this article series, Satish Naik, Editor of Chinha Art News takes an overview of the changing art scenario in Maharashtra and India with a special reference to the artistic taste of the middle class. This insightful series offers glimpses of various transformative phases of the art world through the past decades till today. In this seventh and final part of the article, the author shares some interesting observations regarding the art culture and comments on the future of art education in Maharashtra.
I would like to make a note of the most interesting observation at the end of this article. That is, no matter how much one looks down upon the middleclass, those who rose to fame as legendary painters, not only became household names, but have also achieved global fame today, all of them are born from middleclass families. We cannot forget this. If the names are to be listed alphabetically, Ambadas, Ahivasi, Altaf, Acharekar, Athawale, Abalal Rahiman, Ara, Almelkar, Kadam, Karmarkar, Kulkarni, Gade, Gaitonde, Gurjar, Gondhalekar, Godse, Rashi Gosavi, Chimulkar, Chudekar, Jamblikar, Joshi, Talim, Taskar, Dalvi, Deuskar, Dhurandhar, Dhond, Dhopeshwarkar, Nagarkar, Nageshkar, Pandit, Parandekar, Palshikar, Pansare, Puram, Phadke, Badiger, Badrinarayan, Bakre, B Prabha, B Vitthal, Bendre, Masoji, Mali, Ravindra Mestri, Mehta, Matre, Raza, Raiba, Lajmi, Wagh, Wankhede, Sadwelkar, Sathe, Satwalekar, Souza, Sutar, Sonavadekar, Solegaonkar, Harkishanlal, Haldankar, Hussain, Hebbar to Barve, Garge, Shrestha, Patwardhan, Kolte. It cannot be forgotten that all the enriching painters came from the middleclass and some even from the lower middleclass who have made a name for themselves in Indian painting after a great struggle. We cannot forget that today big auctions are being held on the basis of their achievements even at the global level.
There are not many painters from the rich class or the upper middleclass, whatever their societal reasons may be, I would rather not like to comment on that as that aspect is not within the scope of this article. However, it is a fact that this class preserved, nurtured and developed the art of Indian painters who came from the middleclass. It cannot be denied by anyone. The government should have intervened and done something there. The government leaders showed great foresight and created departments like Lalit Kala Akademi, and Directorate of Art. But I am very sorry to say that later leaders, corrupt bureaucrats and artists with criminal tendencies in the art field conspired to reduce all these innovative concepts to naught.
Lalit Kala Akademi started its work of art propagation very well in the fifties. They gradually started spreading art through booklets on artists, Hindi-English art magazines, books, monograms, prints of famous painters etc. But what followed was the same what is written in the fate of government institutions. Corrupt officials started unethical practices there. Taking advantage of this, criminal minded artists set up their abode in the Akademi and literally tarnished its original purpose. Even if the Akademi would have prints of famous painters like Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings to every household in India, the Kala Akademi would have enjoyed the virtue of art dissemination. But the workers of the Akademi and elected artist representatives from all over India have done terrible things, even worse than the politicians who have wreaked havoc in India. And have ruined its original purpose of spreading art.
The same got repeated in Maharashtra State Art Directorate. The first and only department in India established for the propagation of art and art education has reached a dilapidated state due to the collusion of corrupt politicians and gangster officials. Therefore, those working in this field have lost their ability to hope that something good can happen in the future. Fortunately, the Maharashtra Government and the Central Government took timely cognizance and gave the JJ School of Art the Denovo status, so there is hope that the 166-year-old JJ School of Art will definitely survive.
Indian art got its famous painters from this very institute. Therefore, this organization will be able to continue its work vigorously, but due to the decline of the Lalit Kala Akademi or the Maharashtra State Art Directorate, I have several doubts about how far the work of art propagation can stand again. If we get good, cultured, educated, noble political leaders and they pay special attention to national education policy, art education and art dissemination, we can expect something. Otherwise there will be a time when countless artists like me would be burdened with the responsibility of writing articles like ‘Art and Middle class’ in the next several generations.
Satish Naik
Editor, Chinha Art News
Click on the link given below, to view Art Education Panel Discussion organized by Chinha.
कलाशिक्षण महाचर्चा | Panel Discussion About Art Education
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