Standing at the stairs leading to the foyer I looked
at the young people waiting enthusiastically in the lounge for the senior artist
to start his demonstration. A live painting session was in progress there and
the audience were mostly young artists and aspirants from the local art
colleges. As per the new world order and its resultant customs, they looked at
the artist and his canvas through the lenses of their mobile cameras. Some of
them were clicking stills of the man who was engrossed in demonstrating his
skills and some others were recording the session in videos thinking that they
could study the nuances of the brush strokes and mixing of the colors later. Once
the ritual of mobile mediation was done they all focused on the painting
process with their own eyes.
What do the live sessions do to the young art
students, I thought. Was it like a musician or a dancer performing before an
audience? Obviously the performing artists impact the emotional level of the audience
before they invite the attention of the audience to the nuances of their performance
and technical virtuosity. Students of the performing artists do learn from observing
their gurus. As far as the art students are concerned apart from the class room
demonstrations that their teachers give they don’t get to see other artists
making paintings or sculptures live. The art of making art is a covert thing;
in the privacy of the studios artists make art and people are allowed to see when
the work of art is finished. That’s is a sort of rule.
However, there are exceptions to this. There are
artists who are comfortable in the company of others. They can draw or paint
while someone is watching or talking. They are not afraid of their styles and
techniques being copied or imitated. But others, whether they are afraid of
copycats or not, they are comfortable in their private worlds. Even if visitors
are allowed once in a while it is not for showing the process of working but to
show them the finished work. At times, these reticent artists too reveal their processes
before an audience especially when they are video documented for a mutually
agreed upon documentary or when they are in a camp. Artists who regularly go
for camps or workshops are not afraid of being before an audience while they do
the work. Sometimes camps are organized for the benefit of the young artists
and art students. Those artists who do not want to work before an audience do
not go for camps. Nowadays camp means sight-seeing pleasure trips. Works are to
be given to the organizers only when the artists are back in their studios.
One thing is sure that people never lose interest in
watching an artist work. It is really the magic of making. Artists working
amidst a crowd are like public performers, like street magicians and street artists.
They are aware of the public and at the same time they know how to hold the interest
of the public safe from waning. They take out their work materials as if they
were magicians or a street vendor displaying his wares. The moment they start
working a small crowd gathers and it swells into a strong one. Each line and
stroke is followed closely by the attentive eyes. They twist and turn as the
lines take different shapes. There is a physical response to the artists’
performance of making art. I have seen people waiting the works to be finished.
It is not just about the lucky one who has been picked up as the model by the
artists but also the onlookers. They all want to see the finished work and feel
good about what they have just seen. Each one in the crowd feels that he or she
should be picked up as the next model. None would mind if the artist is just
making a landscape exactly the way the Barbizon School painters in the late 19th
century did in Paris and Shibu Natesan does these days.
Artists’ studios are highly guarded places. Artists
are like the proverbial giants who sit over the treasures. But in history there
are some artists who apparently showed their prowess in making art for the sake
of others. Some of the artists are performative in nature and as I mentioned
before they are ready to show their abilities at any given time. Pablo Picasso,
Jackson Pollock, Yves Klein and artists like them performed their paintings for
others. Generally, art teachers are comfortable in performing before the
students or other people. Photographs available in the archives show artists
like Nandlal Bose, Binod Behari Mukherjee, Ram Kinkar Baij, N.S.Bendre,
Prabhakar Kolte enthusiastically demonstrating before the students. May be that
is one reason why there are so many students evolved like them in their artistic
styles. They become part of a school, a style and a sort of philosophy. You may
ask if it is good for the growth of the students. Replicating the style is a
thing of past and was done to death with the demise of the guilds. Modern and
contemporary art demand uniqueness and experimental styles from the artist. So
following one artist or his style is not a thing to be cherished anymore.
The way art is taught in institutions is also changed.
Previously, as we have seen already, demonstration was the prime way of teaching
skill and style. Today, most of the artists and art teachers believe that art
cannot be taught so the students should be left to their own devices. Art teachers
should be just facilitators. They should be more like sounding boards who would
help the students reflect on their art than hand holding them to make art in
certain styles. However, it is observed that where the art teachers are practicing
artists themselves the students feel like emulating the working methods than
imitating the style. Following the work routine of the master/teacher is always
good for discipline. It has also been observed that where the art teachers draw
with their tongues than with their hands the students tend to do the same,
eventually becoming preachers of sorts than artists, conceptual or otherwise.
Artists need appreciation from the public. Artists do
not discern between the initiated and the ordinary folks. Artists are happy
when they could arouse curiosity in others through their works. Artists, though
sometimes reluctant in talking, feel soul satisfied when people spend time
before their works. People in turn want to see how much they could grasp the
magic of art, the hidden meanings of it. When they fail to do so, they turn
their faces away. When an artist performs a painting before the people they get
enthusiastic because it is a treasure hunt in an unchartered land with no GPS
in hand. Artist him/herself guides the people towards the final point and it is
an exhilarating experience.
-JohnyML
(All the pictures are from Lalit Kala Akademi Galleries
where Prof.Pranam Singh performed a painting)
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