[Reader-list] fwd: inoffensive contemporary indian art -

[Angshukanta Chakraborty]

I think the problem of  'inoffensiveness' will be taken care of by the tone
and views of the 'independent' reviewer himself, whose yardstick of
measuring Indian art is basically his characteristic ignorance of Indian
art. That he begins with the matter-of-fact admission is also pretty
much giving away the redundant-though-still-nomative take on
Indian/non-Western art - Orientalised ornaments in pigments or pixels which
isn't much worth knowing. He's amazed by the absence of things he considers
offensive, which in a way boils down to some irreligious metaphor hurting a
sentiment here or there thus successfully sparking off a mediagenic
controversy . Perhaps, more than the physical absence of M F Hussain's
artworks in this particular exhibition, which according to the reviewer,
could have generated some aesthetic offensiveness, it is worth thinking how
the questioning of Hussain's 'legendary' status, or brushing off his
'comparisons with Picasso', actually betrays the reviewer's openly expressed
Eurocentrism,  and only a half-baked appreciation of art under a different
rubric. The ignorance is not a start, it is a startling reiteration of the
perpetuity of one-sided knowledge-systems that take inordinate amount of
pleasure in rehashing old myths in a world that has gone much further ahead
in understanding, intermingling and expanding the categories of art ,
aesthetics and cultures. But for some, represented by the likes of this
particular reviewer, the Art under discussion has not only not arrived, it
very much never quite existed without the aesthetic sanction and
appropriation of these self-aggrandising Western culture industries.



On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 4:56 PM, indersalim <indersalim at gmail.com> wrote:

> may click to read on Indian art abroad
>
>
> http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/safe-passage-to-india-inoffensive-indian-contemporary-art-1066813.html
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