There’s often an acute disconnect, or rather a remarkable difference, between art that happens inside an art school and outside of it. Therefore, a healthy discussion among the art community seemed an excellent idea to Tejendra Singh Baoni, principal of College of Fine Arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath.
He suggested it to their board in charge, which immediately approved an artists’ camp-cum-workshop and sanctioned Rs25 lakh for it. Thus happened ‘Homage to Gurudev’, an exhibition of paintings, sculptures, multimedia and print works of 48 artist-teachers, who participated in a unique week-long camp of art teachers from all over India.
The show was titled ‘Homage to Gurudev’ for multiple reasons. The obvious one being a tribute to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore—teacher, poet and humanist. The first modern art school of India was Tagore’s Shantiniketan. Secondly, the 48 artists who participated in the camp taught art at various prestigious institutions. Also, the theme of this camp was “artists as teachers”.
The camp worked as a platform for dialogues on art teaching, the professionalising art practices, challenges of teaching and role of art institutes in society. Twenty-two artist-teachers from various corners of the country participated along with 24 teachers with the Chitrakala Parishath (CKP). Stalwarts like Jai Zarotia, Jogen Chowdhury and VG Andani worked along with their students who were by now established artists-cum-educationists.
“Almost four generations of artists interacted effortlessly at the camp. It was the first time in about 15 years that a workshop of this kind was organised,” says HA Anil Kumar, art historian and teacher with the CKP. To democratise the camp, there were two curators as well—Lina Vincent and Sandhya Annaiah.
Over the week, many produced more than one work. Interestingly, several artists experimented beyond their usual media. For instance, Prof KS Appajaiah, who teaches painting at CKP and is a senior artist known for his miniature paintings, created two photo montages and an installation questioning avant garde in art in parallel with a similar social movement in Karnataka’s Hindu caste structure.
Anil Kumar’s work, titled ‘Extreme Cliche: First Solo Retrospect: Shantiniketan’, is an interesting interplay of critical text and paintings, a visual translation of a chapter from his own book about Shantiniketan.
Jai Zarotia’s acrylic on canvas, titled ‘Male and female’, stands out for its subtle depiction of man-woman expressions. “The students at CKP observed and learnt from the creative processes of these senior artists, who tried both conventional approaches as well as contemporary experimentation,” says Annaiah.
This interesting body of work is on display at the art complex of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath till January 7.
