Western Swing

Following close on the heels of artist Yusuf Arakkal’s second prize at the Florence Biennial, it may seem like a sign from the powers that be. Doctor-artist Gieve Patel, recently back from his lecture-tour at the Bose Pacia in New York, agrees that things have taken an upward swing. While his slide lecture was well received, Patel is even more excited about the future of the Chester and Davida Herwitz collection of over 3,000 Indian paintings. Collectors of Patel, Husain and every other significant painter, the late aficionados donated their cultural wealth to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachussets. A collection like this will only build on the already growing awareness of Indian art in the US.

Take Mumbai-based Sudarshan Shetty, for instance. His recent solo exhibition ‘Consanguinity’, was hosted by curator Peter Nagy’s Nature Mort in Delhi in collaboration with Bose Pacia and he has been showing abroad for the past 10 years. However, he believes that Indian contemporary art is now finally getting its place in the sun. ‘‘There’s a new energy and a genuine interest that goes beyond just being politically correct by including ‘Asian’ representatives. But this is just the beginning. We have a long way to go before we come on par with countries like China and Korea,’’ says Shetty, citing South East Asia’s economic edge as a reason for their one-upmanship over their Indian neighbours.

In fact, where the attraction for South East Asian art has stemmed, Europe is still curious about Indian art. ‘‘One of my strengths is being able to use my identity as an Indian to differentiate my work from other European artists—and I don’t mean playing the exotic card,’’ says Joshi, whose two years at the Rijksakademi Amsterdam gave him ample time to explore. He is now even more eager to get back to his Amsterdam studio and bury himself in work—given that funding for the arts is the last thing on the list of economic priorities.

‘‘Using a representation of a cricket field as his next work, Joshi was noticed for his sensitive and multilayered installation ‘Black to Play and Draw’ that showed at ‘subTerrain artworks in the cityfold’, an exhibition curated by Geeta Kapur at the House of World Culture, Berlin. Typifying a new and encouraging trend that has taken hold of the Indian art scenario, Joshi, like his contemporaries Mumbai-based digital artist Shilpa Gupta (a Tate Modern favourite) and Delhi-based sculptor and performance artist Subodh Gupta, is one of the chosen ones.

Very often young and promising talents get singled out from well-curated, larger Indian exhibitions showing abroad. They may not get a solo exhibition right away but become part of other larger curated European shows, which, nonetheless, presents them to a broader spectrum of viewers,’’ says Peter Nagy, an American curator. Nagy, settled in India since 1992, opened Nature Mort in 1997 and will be launching Show Room, a non-profit gallery, this month.

According to Nagy, it is visiting museum curators like Alanna Heiss, director of PS One in New York, who started the ball rolling and now even private galleries from the US and Europe are showing keen interest.

‘‘It’s an extension of what is happening to Indian literature and cuisine, curators are being more responsible and looking at Indian art,’’ says Nagy who is planning a large show with Anita Dube and Subodh Gupta in a Vancouver gallery for the coming year. Heiss’s January show in Lisbon will also feature Indian art.

As Patel points out, ‘‘Today, younger artists like Atul Dodiya and Shetty can look forward to international recognition in their 30s, whereas artists of our generation had to wait much longer.’’