06-03-2007, 05:50 AM
We need to look at this issue of contemporary painting and Indian politics through the prism of modernism and India. Modernism was a concept developed in Western Europe from the 16th to 19th centuries over a period of 300 years to create a new industrial society casting of the old agrarian society. And this allowed the Western Europe to march ahead of the rest of the World. In order for Modernism to succeed there have to be at least two conditions- Independence and Innovation. All Western European countries had these two conditions.
In contrast the "Second"(Russia and Eastern Europe) and "Third" world had three handicaps- time compression, colonialism and imitation. While Western Europe had about 300 years to achieve modernism these two groups had less than a blink of the day. They moderinised by fiat/dictat as soon as Colonial rule ended or monarchies were displaced. Again there was no Independence to learn and change the tack of modernism as the two groups were dependent on the First World in political, economic and cultural ways. The third handicap is imitation. The intellectuals in the two groups are imitative instead of innovative. This is what causes the most strain as they seek to force feed an alien way over the rest of their people without giving time for the changes to take effect.
The imitative nature of modernism in India can be seen right on this thread where the artists have been accused of plagiarism and imitating thier foreign inspirations.
In contrast the "Second"(Russia and Eastern Europe) and "Third" world had three handicaps- time compression, colonialism and imitation. While Western Europe had about 300 years to achieve modernism these two groups had less than a blink of the day. They moderinised by fiat/dictat as soon as Colonial rule ended or monarchies were displaced. Again there was no Independence to learn and change the tack of modernism as the two groups were dependent on the First World in political, economic and cultural ways. The third handicap is imitation. The intellectuals in the two groups are imitative instead of innovative. This is what causes the most strain as they seek to force feed an alien way over the rest of their people without giving time for the changes to take effect.
The imitative nature of modernism in India can be seen right on this thread where the artists have been accused of plagiarism and imitating thier foreign inspirations.