New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS) Talk of "international and global" art irks renowned artist A. Ramachandran, who feels such concepts dilute the distinctive flavour of regional works and should be avoided if art has to flourish in the world.
"I don't believe in international art. I think global art or international art is an absurd language to define art in general. Each region has its own peculiarities, just as we have languages," Ramachandran told IANS in an interview.
"If we make art into a single standarasied expression as post-modernism artists are doing, after a few years art will be a boring thing to watch. It will (happen here) what is happening in different parts of the world," he added.
Vadehra Art Gallery and Lalit Kala Akademi had presented an exhibition of the Kerala-born artist in two parts: A Retrospective: Drawings, sketches and studies; and Ekalinji Fantasy: Paintings and sculptures that has just concluded in the capital.
The exhibition showcased drawings spanning 56 years of the artist's journey and traced his creative expression based on observations and influences from life
experiences, literature and the essences of developing ideologies.
In the early 1950s, art was not considered a dignified profession, hence his parents wanted him to finish his general education. Thus, he obtained a masters in literature and then headed to Santiniketan for studying art.
"I got a chance to undergo academic discipline which only helped me in my later years to study art because my background was much better and I knew about artists.
So when I went out to meet people, I wasn't a novice and I knew quite a lot," Ramachandran recollected.
"I think my solid training in art added to my academic career in literature and that added to my whole consciousness of being an artist," he added.
This collective consciousness responded to the social institutions and changes that he witnessed during his days in Santiniketan. But his earlier works were never
a representation of the natural and serene environment of the art institute; they instead reflected the grim life of refugees and roads crowded with people post
the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
"The different strata of life were intermingling on the roads in those days. You could see people living in the payments in horrible conditions. So I saw these facts
of life and not the beauty of Santiniketan," he said.
Then, in early 1980s, at his east Delhi's Bharti Artist Colony, one incident forever changed his perspective towards the dark paintings.
"That time,(the 1984) riots had happened right here. I saw a mob chase a Sikh and killed him right there. The sight of human killing humans was grotesque," he recollected.
"So, I thought to glorify cruelty through paintings is not an act of an artist. It requires a man who should rise above the journalistic stance of terror and expose his audience to things much more sublime," he added.
And this is how his art took a different direction where he started painting bigger motifs, lotus ponds and natural surroundings in bright, cheery colours.
Ramachandran's works are often intervened with selective humour and wit, a quality he attributes to his Malyali traits. But what many art critics have so far failed to recognise is his ability to use "magic realism" in his works.
"My works have apparent similarities with what I observe. Like I observe a lotus pond but I am not making an abstract lotus point, it is elevated. So I use composite imaginary in my works that resonate with magic realism," he said.
In the past, Ramachandran has been snubbed by his contemporaries for changing his focus from human agony to nature, but none of this criticism has affected his personal space.
"Many artists don't agree with what I do. They feel my work is not sophisticated like the post-modern theories and concepts the art fraternuty follows. I prefer to
walk alone rather than join a group," he concluded.
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