NEW DELHI, November 3: Whose art is it anyway? Artists the world over have had to face this dilemma and confront the question what constitutes art and what not? Their ideas, however, differ greatly from how the average man looks at it.The query comes up again after a particular tree, dead in this instance, was painted a brilliant blue by the curator of an exhibition bang in front of National Gallery of Modern Arts (NGMA) at India Gate where it is currently showing. The exhibition in question is the much-publicised Indo-Austrian art project `A Search Within' that features works of 10 Indian and 10 Austrian artists.Headed by Werner Dornik, an Austrian artist and a social worker who has visited the country on several occasions and worked with leprosy patients, the idea to paint the dead tree blue hit him when an exhibition signboard was put up on the tree.``The dead, sad tree was not how I wanted the people to look at it. So, instead, I painted it blue so that the people could relate to the brighter, greener side of trees all over the world. But believe me, if I did not know the tree to be dead, I would not have dared to paint it, blue or otherwise,'' Werner clarifies.There was a similar debate last year when an Austrian artist participating in the Ninth Triennale painted a whole lot of graffiti on the exhibition hall of the prestigious NGMA as part of his work.The fact that it was a temporary work of art failed to pacify many critics who wondered aloud how a foreign artist was allowed to ``disfigure'' the walls of a prestigious art house in the first place.Meanwhile, NGMA director Anjali Sen is surprised at the amount of attention which the tree seems to be getting. ``Let me clarify in the first place that NGMA is in no way accountable for what an artist does outside its premises. Having said that, I can assure you that the painted tree had been declared dead a long time ago,'' she says. The tree happens to be just outside the premises of the gallery.The fact that the said tree had indeed been declared dead by the Horticulture Department will certainly pacify troubled environmentalists, already burdened with anxiety over dwindling greenery in the Capital. But does anyone, leave alone a foreigner, have the right to paint just about anything on the road and make it a part of his or her work of art? In Werner's case, he did so because the gallery had decided to put a signboard on the said tree and it thus became a prop to the signboard.Arpana Caur, whose work has been a part of the show, says: ``Does it bother anyone when people put up thousands of electric bulbs on living, healthy trees to light up their parties and festivals? In this case, it was a dead tree. Why does everyone have to be so bureaucratic in thought. Today, art has flowed out of the frame in the form of installations. I firmly believe that so long as it is not destructive and does not hurt anyone's sentiments, artists have the right to say and do what they feel is art''.Says CPWD horticulture department director Chotte Singh: ``I have passed the tree often on my way to office and I have known it to be dead even though the area is not under my jurisdiction. I also noticed the blue colour painted on it. But so long as it wasn't a living, healthy tree, I don't see any harm in it''.The NDMC horticulture department director, under whose area NGMA and the India Gate area falls, was unable to explain as to why the dead tree wasn't uprooted and another sapling planted in its place, a normal course of action which is taken by the department for any tree that has been declared dead under the rules.Meanwhile, for the artists `The tree is dead, Long live the tree!'
