Mission and Vision of Artists today

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In the days of spectacular art and celebrity artists who flaunt their concern for a world that has gone wrong, and suggest what could be done to right it through their art, I see several other artists who show  their works in humble shows without having any claim on the rights and wrongs of the world. They wait for the shows to get over so that they can pack their works with a lot of love and take them back to their small studios at times the bedrooms that turn into a studio during day times and feel a lot good about all what has happened to them in the shows. There was a time I used to believe that the successful artists flagging out issues before the world so that an urge for changing the world could be generated amongst the viewers was necessary if not an inevitability. But today I stand corrected on the fact that flagging out or even debating a social ill is not really the job of an artist or the mission of the work of art even though there could be possibilities ingrained both in the artists and the works of art to flag out social issues. Ironically today success and fame via market and media attention come to those artists who are problem pointers than problem solvers.

I look at the works of art done by those artists who come far away form the glittering world of success and fame but with works that innately carry solutions of the possible problems that the viewers could pose before those works of art. These artists humble and pleasant because they realise that any kind of competition does not take them either to success or fame. When they realise that they are not in competition with the flexible ideologies of the glittering market that produce and sell spectacular art  the reality and the truth of their own existence comes out with all clarity and simplicity that helps them to create art that in itself contains all possible solutions.

(Image for illustration purpose only-Source Net)

The artists who flourish via flagging out problems in their works of art in reality do not want those problems to be solved. They negate the fact hat any problem in this world contains the solution in itself. When a problem has a solution attached to it, what one needs is the ability to see the solution along with the problem.  But the real problem with the world of art that flag out social problems is that they don't want to contain a solution nor the artists want to lead the viewers to that possible solution. What they want is the maintenance of the problem. The moment the problem is solved, the very rationale of their art ceases to exist. So for them to remain as artists with all those good things attached to it, the only way is to perpetuate and maintain the problem. While one accepts the fact that as social beings the artists cannot be stopped from flagging out social issues, one has to also accept the fact that their art finds its existence in the problems. That means if no problem, no art.

Those humble artists who have taken themselves out of the circle of competitions make the art of solutions. What they make in their art and what they see in their art are the clarities that they have gained by removing the very idea of competition from their lives. When this over arching notions of success, fame, celebrity status, spectacularly of art are removed, from one's consciousness and existence, what they see in themselves is the ultimate rhythm that helps them to vibe with what is good and right in the world. They don't behave like rag-pickers or scavengers, they don't poke their nose into trouble and problems in order to create issue- based or problem-based art. The humblest of expressions could be most powerful when they come via a skilful and mindful artist who is in tune with the rhythms of Nature. That doesn't mean that the artist who are resolved in their poverty as well as richness cannot or should not look at the apparent world and deal with the issues that have forms and structures. But, such artists do not get trapped by the problems. They look at the structures and forms, and see how those could be employed to create a world that exists within the imagination of the artist. And it is expressed only for clarifying him / herself as a human being. This is a constant process of self purification. The art of the new world and the new India could come only from this purity and clarity. Never from the spectacular art for the glittering market.