V.S.Gopalakrishnan
What in the first place is the justification for making paintings? If you take dancing, it comes naturally to us all and often as a spontaneous response to music. Lord Nataraja danced. And as for music, we all like it, in different ways, whether it comes forth from Saraswati or Narada or Gandharvas or Kinnaras or Himesh Reshammiya. But Gods and goddesses, partial to music and dancing, have ignored paintings. Perhaps the heaven and hell have really no building-walls to be decorated with paintings. It is only the mortals who go for paintings! They live in walled houses, and don't like barren walls and so they go about decorating them with coloured objects called paintings!
Although our appreciation of dance, music and art has a subjective element, paintings are the hardest to judge. Music and dance can be judged for excellence within reasonable parameters although there is no definitive yardstick available like a stop-watch for judging, say, a competitive sprint event. As for appreciating art or paintings, what is one man's food is another man's poison! I am sure that more than half the visitors to a gallery/museum get puzzled by abstract paintings.
Personally, I have been a very keen student of art from my youth. And I became fond of all genres of paintings and could 'appreciate' them all. Whatever be the kind of painting -realistic, impressionistic, expressionistic, surrealist, fauvist, cubist, abstract - I liked them all. And I developed a very high regard for painters of all genres. But when I myself formally learnt painting in 1999 and became a painter with seven one-man shows to my credit since then, my awe in respect of the works of very many top painters has vanished. I could just see them only as some kind of products made by those who would be termed by many as charlatans or frauds.
TYEB MEHTA (1925-2009):
Born in Gujarat and brought up in Bombay, he went to the JJ School of Art. He was regarded as a top Indian painter, only next to MF Husain. In recent years, each of his paintings went for more than a crore of rupees!
Tyeb Mehta
Mahishasura
diagonal series
Kali (sold in auction for more than Rs.1 crore)
Till a decade ago I used to treat Tyeb as a big name but now his recent canvases seem to me like something I would not wish to own even for free!You may feel that you can paint better than Tyeb in the above paintings! Why on earth they had to paint Hindu deities, and that too most crudely, passes my comprehension.
------------
S.H.RAZA (b.1922)
He made a name as a painter in Mumbai and began to live in Paris from 1950. He comes to Mumbai in December every year to avoid the European winter. I have met him. I have conversed with him in French for the heck of it! Now, let us look at his recent paintings.
Syed Haider Raza
Tree
Kundalini
Raza is regarded as the third top-most modern Indian painter, after M.F.Husain and Tyeb Mehta. His paintings sell for a price between Rs.50 lakhs and Rs.1 crore. The work show some circles, squares, triangles etc. The central dot, the "bindu" is often a recurrent theme. I am sure many feel that they can paint equally well or even better!
------------------------
JUAN MIRO (1893-1983) OF SPAIN:
He was a celebrated Spanish modern painter. There was a special show of Miro's work in the Grand Palais, Paris, about 40 years ago which I visited. When I visited Tate Modern Gallery, London, three weeks ago, again there was a special show of Miro's paintings. What are his paintings like?
Juan Miro
Was he a fraud? Can most people paint better than him? The answer to both the questions would seem to many people as "yes" indeed!
-------------------------------
ELLSWORTH KELLY (b.1923) -AMERICAN PAINTER;
He is a well-known painter and is known as a minimalist. Let us see some of his paintings.
Ellsworth Kelly
Many of you may rightly think that you can perhaps paint better than Kelly! Just please try!
----------------------------------------
PAUL KLEE (1879-1940) OF SWITZERLAND:
He was a great and celebrated painter. Very fancifully, the names Klee and Kandinsky used to often go together. What were his paintings like?
Paul Klee
Now, which of the above paintings would you like to display on your drawing room wall? "None", many of you may answer!
-------------------------
It is sad that there are hardly any norms to judge the real worth of a painting. A painter is often made by his agents and the media. Lack of application and an effort at quick turn-over for getting large earnings, seem to be the driving many painters to compromise with quality. Renaissance masters spent years or months to finish one painting. In today's art-world, as a painter's age advances, acquired skills often seem to vanish and the quality regresses. Some jingoistic modernism takes hold of many painters who begin to produce crap. Painters like Jean Dubuffet, Barnet Newman, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Victor Pasmore, Gerhard Richter, Henri Matisse, Ernst Kirchner, Francis Picabia, Paule Vezelay, Robert Motherwell - they all disappoint me nowadays. My old admiration for them is now gone. After I tasted the apple myself, I experience disenchantment with many, many Masters!
Let me give just one example of the work of the above painters:
by Jean Dubuffet (French)
by Barnett Newman (American)
by Philip Guston (American)
by Mark Rothko (Russian-born American painter)
by Victor Pasmore (Bitish artist)
by Gerhard Richter (German)
by Henri Matisse (French) - not bad, passable!
by Ernst Kirchner (German) - very many paintings are bad, and very many are passable.
by Francis Picabia (French) - but many are passable too.
by Paule Vezelay (she was born in England)
by Robert Motherwell (American)
--------------------
Recently, my son in London got his two year old child some paints, brushes and a large white sheet to paint upon. I was to be a guide and a help for him. But the little fellow needed no help. Below is an "abstract" painting made by him. It is as good as a Jackson Pollock or even better! You can see two foot-marks of his on his work!
(Kindly ignore wrong dates on photos)
---------------------------
So, please go and get some canvases, brushes and colours (preferably acrylic). You can perhaps try to prove that you are better than many Masters!
============================
What in the first place is the justification for making paintings? If you take dancing, it comes naturally to us all and often as a spontaneous response to music. Lord Nataraja danced. And as for music, we all like it, in different ways, whether it comes forth from Saraswati or Narada or Gandharvas or Kinnaras or Himesh Reshammiya. But Gods and goddesses, partial to music and dancing, have ignored paintings. Perhaps the heaven and hell have really no building-walls to be decorated with paintings. It is only the mortals who go for paintings! They live in walled houses, and don't like barren walls and so they go about decorating them with coloured objects called paintings!
Although our appreciation of dance, music and art has a subjective element, paintings are the hardest to judge. Music and dance can be judged for excellence within reasonable parameters although there is no definitive yardstick available like a stop-watch for judging, say, a competitive sprint event. As for appreciating art or paintings, what is one man's food is another man's poison! I am sure that more than half the visitors to a gallery/museum get puzzled by abstract paintings.
Personally, I have been a very keen student of art from my youth. And I became fond of all genres of paintings and could 'appreciate' them all. Whatever be the kind of painting -realistic, impressionistic, expressionistic, surrealist, fauvist, cubist, abstract - I liked them all. And I developed a very high regard for painters of all genres. But when I myself formally learnt painting in 1999 and became a painter with seven one-man shows to my credit since then, my awe in respect of the works of very many top painters has vanished. I could just see them only as some kind of products made by those who would be termed by many as charlatans or frauds.
TYEB MEHTA (1925-2009):
Born in Gujarat and brought up in Bombay, he went to the JJ School of Art. He was regarded as a top Indian painter, only next to MF Husain. In recent years, each of his paintings went for more than a crore of rupees!
Mahishasura diagonal series Kali (sold in auction for more than Rs.1 crore)Till a decade ago I used to treat Tyeb as a big name but now his recent canvases seem to me like something I would not wish to own even for free!You may feel that you can paint better than Tyeb in the above paintings! Why on earth they had to paint Hindu deities, and that too most crudely, passes my comprehension.
------------
S.H.RAZA (b.1922)
He made a name as a painter in Mumbai and began to live in Paris from 1950. He comes to Mumbai in December every year to avoid the European winter. I have met him. I have conversed with him in French for the heck of it! Now, let us look at his recent paintings.
Raza is regarded as the third top-most modern Indian painter, after M.F.Husain and Tyeb Mehta. His paintings sell for a price between Rs.50 lakhs and Rs.1 crore. The work show some circles, squares, triangles etc. The central dot, the "bindu" is often a recurrent theme. I am sure many feel that they can paint equally well or even better!
------------------------
JUAN MIRO (1893-1983) OF SPAIN:
He was a celebrated Spanish modern painter. There was a special show of Miro's work in the Grand Palais, Paris, about 40 years ago which I visited. When I visited Tate Modern Gallery, London, three weeks ago, again there was a special show of Miro's paintings. What are his paintings like?
Was he a fraud? Can most people paint better than him? The answer to both the questions would seem to many people as "yes" indeed!
-------------------------------
ELLSWORTH KELLY (b.1923) -AMERICAN PAINTER;
He is a well-known painter and is known as a minimalist. Let us see some of his paintings.
Many of you may rightly think that you can perhaps paint better than Kelly! Just please try!
----------------------------------------
PAUL KLEE (1879-1940) OF SWITZERLAND:
He was a great and celebrated painter. Very fancifully, the names Klee and Kandinsky used to often go together. What were his paintings like?
Now, which of the above paintings would you like to display on your drawing room wall? "None", many of you may answer!
-------------------------
It is sad that there are hardly any norms to judge the real worth of a painting. A painter is often made by his agents and the media. Lack of application and an effort at quick turn-over for getting large earnings, seem to be the driving many painters to compromise with quality. Renaissance masters spent years or months to finish one painting. In today's art-world, as a painter's age advances, acquired skills often seem to vanish and the quality regresses. Some jingoistic modernism takes hold of many painters who begin to produce crap. Painters like Jean Dubuffet, Barnet Newman, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Victor Pasmore, Gerhard Richter, Henri Matisse, Ernst Kirchner, Francis Picabia, Paule Vezelay, Robert Motherwell - they all disappoint me nowadays. My old admiration for them is now gone. After I tasted the apple myself, I experience disenchantment with many, many Masters!
Let me give just one example of the work of the above painters:
--------------------
Recently, my son in London got his two year old child some paints, brushes and a large white sheet to paint upon. I was to be a guide and a help for him. But the little fellow needed no help. Below is an "abstract" painting made by him. It is as good as a Jackson Pollock or even better! You can see two foot-marks of his on his work!
(Kindly ignore wrong dates on photos)---------------------------
So, please go and get some canvases, brushes and colours (preferably acrylic). You can perhaps try to prove that you are better than many Masters!
============================
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