| |
THE
ARTS: GERMAN FESTIVAL
Crafting
A Nation
Each
exhibit — from an ornament to a door pull — in the German National
Museum presentation on medieval art is marked by excellence of workmanship
and design
By
S. Kalidas
 |
| Enthroned
Madonna, South Tyrol, 1200. The statue shows Mary carrying Jesus
|
The
real profile of a nation lies etched not necessarily within its geo-political
boundaries but in the spread of its language, culture, music and art.
Civilisational processes have always preceded and are always far larger
in their sweep than the political nation-state that may result from them.
Europe, has been assembled, fragmented and then unified again several
times over. Countries have been created, assimilated or dismantled; but
through all these centuries the cultural and linguistic expressions of
the people inhabiting these regions have always remained active. More
importantly, they have also been archived, conserved and put on display.
This is where
Europeans differ from the Indians: they have managed to preserve their
past far more effectively than Indians even aspired to. Colonisation may
have played its part (although the British have to be thanked for both
the Archaeological Survey of India and the National Museum) but India
as a civilisation did not give much importance to material artefacts or
buildings. Continuity of social traditions and thought mattered more than
physical preservation of objects and artifacts. It was only after independence
that an effort was made in this direction by the late Kamladevi Chattopadhyay
and this has lately resulted in the magnificent Crafts Museum run by Jyotindra
Jain, an academically qualified and impeccably professional museum curator.
 |
| Base
plate of a door pull |
This fact
again hits on the face on a visit to the highly engaging exhibition of
German artefacts, "Ornament and Figure: Medieval Art from Germany"
at Delhi's National Museum. This show presented by the German National
Museum, Nuremberg, as a part of the ongoing Festival of Germany in India,
will travel to Calcutta, Hyderabad and Mumbai as well. First set up in
1852 in a medieval monastery, even before the integration of the various
European princely states into the German Republic, the German museum has
collected objects, manuscripts and other examples of artistic expression
of the Germanic people right from pre-history to the modern age. This
particular exhibition, however, confines its scope to the medieval period.
From early
ornaments like a set of 7th century fibulae (brooch-like pins) recovered
from pre-Christian row-graves in the region of Weissenburg-Gunzenhausen
to early Christian icons like a 13th century Madonna with Christ to 16th
century suits of armour and an array of manuscripts and musical scores
on paper and parchment, the offerings are widely varied and captivating.
While objects from the Church and the graves, seals and coat of arms form
the bulk of items on display, there are also several very beautiful ornaments
and utility objects like combs, locks, boxes, door pulls and even oven
tiles.
An exhibition
of this kind raises the question: how does one distinguish between art
and craft? Frankly it is a moot question that has no definite answer.
If the human quest for excellence be the criterion then most of the objects
here would qualify as art. However, does utility — and that too with
a mundane function like, say, a door pull-detract from an object's artistic
value? Well there is always the factor of time: what may be ubiquitous
today could become a rare antique once the era changes and the object
is no longer produced. But in all categories of decorative objects that
would qualify for display in a show of this sort, excellence of craftsmanship
and design are of primary importance. And from that viewpoint each exhibit
here is a marvel.
One thing
that might be mentioned here is the bizarre and boring opening ceremonies
that both Indians and Germans seem to revel in. Over the next few months,
as many other events of the German Festival take place, will people have
to repeatedly suffer inane cliches delivered in pompous speeches by sundry
bureaucrats and naive politicians on their way to the airport?
Apart from
taking up everyone's time and holding back the National Museum and Department
of Culture staff — who comprise 80 per cent of the audience —
these dreary rituals serve no purpose other than putting on display shoddy
general knowledge and bad accents. And if there is no choice in the matter,
could visitors please have better stage decor at least? The highly unaesthetic
cloth banners, tackily placed behind the chief guests' table with its
cheap satin upholstery, could be the first item to be dropped. In this
age of downscaling bureaucracy and private enterprise, the Culture Department
would do well to hire some up-market firm to do their event management
for them. But then the mandarins of Shastri Bhavan would lose even their
ornamental utility.
Top |
|
How
can Non-Performing Assets of companies be cleared? By recovering what
you can, writes INDIA TODAY Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in
