Bold new strokes

“O God, I am so excited! It was a tough job for me to select some of my work while submitting. Every painting is special for me you know. For me painting is playing with imagination rather than colours or lines,” gushed Revant, a class 10 student from Chandigarh. Indeed he had a lot to smile about given that he just had his first painting exhibited, and that too alongside stalwarts of the industry.

In a novel new venture to promote the entire panorama of contemporary Indian art, United Art Logistics Pvt Ltd in collaboration with the Government of India's Ministry of Culture and the Swiss Art Council launched the United Art Fair 2012 at Delhi's Pragati Maidan.

Says founder director Annurag Sharma at the inaugural showing for the artists and members of the press on Thursday: “I am so happy that I could showcase the variety of Indian contemporary art.” Indeed, the show does depict the variety of the Indian canvass, rarely has there been an exhibition where stalwarts like Akbar Padamsee, MF Hussain, Anjolie Ela Memon, Krishan Khanna, J Swaminathan and Ram Kumar rub shoulders with struggling artists fresh out of art colleges.

Indeed, this has been a fair radically different from most other fairs. The organisers have removed the intermittent step of art galleries and directly contacted the artists. Says painter Rajesh Chanda “When gallery organises shows, we do not get a chance to interact with our viewers directly. If any art lover wants to know about any painting, gallery people present their interpretation of that painting which is not exactly what I wanted to portray may be. When I paint I communicate visually, so it is important for me to reach out to my viewers with my thought clearly. Art fairs always give us that chance.”

Indeed, this has also paved the way for many struggling artists to get an opportunity to showcase their work. With art galleries out of the way, amateurs like Ravant have got a shot at showing off their talents. Says a nearly tearful Surojit Sengupta, an artist from Kolkata: “I have been struggling for the past five years, ever since I got out of Rabindra Bharati University. The market is not open enough for a newcomer like me. The best we get to do is sell our works to interior decorators or art directors of movies to be used in indoor sets. This is a really big opportunity for me.”

There were other things that were novel about this fair as well. For one, the scope of the exhibition has not been narrowed down to any particular medium. Says chief curator Johny ML, “We did not categorize art production in watertight compartments. The criteria of selection were their contemporary approach to every notion of art.” Therefore, every thing, from paintings, sculptures and photographs to print making, digital art and other innovative and experimental art forms. The promotion too has been done over all possible channels, including social networking sites and the internet.

The periodicity of the event is yet to be decided. “We will look at the response this fair gets and then decided. We initially hoped to do this annually, but will decide only once we see this ear's response,” said Sharma.

The fair will be opened to the public from Friday and remain on public view till Saturday. It is indeed a novel venture and will be an shot in the arm for Indian artists, especially those still trying to find their footing. Here's wishing it every success.

Photos: Mukunda De