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THE ARTS:
NGMA CONTROVERSY
Clipped
Wings
Officials pull out an 'offending' work from a show, triggering a boycott
by all participating artists
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| The
artists want NGMA to reconsider its decision on Nair's work |
It
was a fantasy that never took flight. When Surendran Nair's surrealist
work arrived at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Delhi, two
days before the "Combine" exhibition opened on September 2,
most artists were gearing up for a show they had worked hard to string
together. After all, how could an Icarus (even in the buff) rehearsing
his trajectory from the bell capital of an Ashoka pillar trigger a potential
show-threatening spat? They should have known better. With nitpicking
bureaucrats calling the shots, unexpected things can happen at the NGMA.
Mukta Nidhi
Samnotra, the new rough-and-ready director of the gallery, suddenly ordered
the withdrawal of the work, saying that it was "disrespectful to
the national emblem". Later, at the opening, R.V.V. Ayyar, the unsuspecting
culture secretary, was pushed to the entrance of the bathroom (where the
contentious work was ignominiously dumped) and asked to act as the arbiter
by the embittered artists. His cautious verdict: "If it had been
exhibited in a private gallery, I would have had no problem. But this
is a government body and we have to appreciate its difficulties."
All the 26 participants decided to withdraw their works in protest.
But, as
it turns out, there was more to the story. The collaborators - Delhi's
newly merged art galleries vis-à-vis Art Inc and the artists -
had been piqued by Samnotra's "haughty and pompous manner" ever
since she took over the reins of the NGMA in April. While the show was
being hung she was heard talking squeamishly about Rekha Rodwittiya's
fabric drawings of nude women and wanted sculptor Rajendar Tiku's work
shifted because "some kids might trip on it". The director,
according to the artists, was trying to take curatorial decisions which,
given her self-acknowledged ignorance of art - "I'm a total novice
as far as art is concerned. The only painter I can recognise is Husain."
- was unacceptable.
There was
an uneasy stand-off. Show curator Prima Kurien and organiser Amit Gupta
have asked the officials to reconsider the plight of Nair's work. (It
seems to have already been bought by a Mumbai collector for Rs 1 lakh.)
Meanwhile, veteran artist Gulammohammed Sheikh, a member of the NGMA advisory
committee that originally ratified the show, resigned for not being consulted
in the disputation.
Since the
US is the flavour of the season, NGMA honchos could possibly learn a lesson
from the former mayor of New York, Rudi Guilliani, who objected to "Sensation"-a
show at the Brooklyn Museum last year (with Chris Ofili's achingly cutting-edge
take on Madonna, crafted out of elephant dung)- but was overruled by two-thirds
of New Yorkers. Or when Andres Serrano's Piss Christ (a crucifix dipped
in the urine of the painter) was brought to the US Supreme Court, which
ruled that there could be no interference with the artistic judgment.
The artists
do not discount legal action if the NGMA continues to be stubborn. As
Nair clarifies, the Ashoka pillar in the painting is not the national
emblem-simply myth is being used "as an allegorical means to suggest
the need for reflection in our times". And where is the inscription
satyamev jayate? But the babu bench shows no intention of relenting. "They
took off the paintings ... not us. Technically, the exhibition is over,"
says S. Sathyamoorthy, joint secretary, culture. "Why should a Greek
god, and that too naked, stand atop the national emblem? National sentiments
could be hurt," he adds. Wonder how long the NGMA will be ruled by
misinformed mandarins and fly-by-night aesthetes?
-Anshul
Avijit
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