Art Education Ruining the Practice and Appreciation of Art

NEW DELHI:
Art education has, over the years, resulted in limiting the creative abilities of artists as well as a wider public appreciation of art by formalizing its language and syntax, according to writer and teacher of art Sudhakar Yadav.
Prof. Yadav, who taught at the prestigious JJ School of Arts in Mumbai for 30 years and has written essays on art and artists, said formal schooling has meant that many artists no longer paint in their “mother tongue” with free-flowing sensibilities, but do so in an academic language that draws their work farther away from the lay person.
He said it has also resulted in the elitist notion of art literacy and illiteracy, with the so-called art illiterate deemed unable to judge or appreciate good artwork.
Prof. Yadav was speaking on the subject of “Figures In and Of Paintings” at the monthly Art Dialogue series organized by the Raza Foundation in partnership with the Civil Services Officers’ Institute here last evening. The discussion also featured poet and art critic Prayag Shukla and was moderated by poet and film-writer Udayan Vajpeyi.
“The visual language, like verbal, has its own grammar. But we cannot appreciate it through a prism of logic, you need a certain innocence and naivete to see its true beauty, because all figures depicted in a painting are lies, there are no realistic images,” he said.
“An object exists in its own space and surroundings, and a painting exists on a surface. Between the space and surface is the act of transformation. An artist transforms his experience of an object in its physical space to an expression on a surface; and the truly great artists are the ones who lend truth to their experience and sensitivities in this act,” he said.
He also noted that people often tend to ask about the meaning of a particular artwork. “It is like asking what does ‘2’ mean. Words have meanings, numbers have values. The colours in a painting have values, not meaning. Anyone can extract a shape, form or pattern from nature, the value you add to it is what makes it a work of art.”
Prof Yadav said this is what differentiates art from mere ‘colourcraft’. “An artist’s job is not to show colours but the truth. A painted canvas has colour, a length of saree also has colour, the differentiator between the two is the value…We see an object in three-dimensions through our senses, when we paint it, we add the fourth dimension of our own experience to it which makes it distinct and beautiful.”
Prayag Shukla echoed the sentiments in saying that, “a painting has a truth of its own, it is not always about something”.
“A great work of art provides a feeling, through its colours and contours, of endlessness; which is why we can go back to it over and over again,” he said. “The works of (Sayed Haider) Raza Saheb for instance, are all colours and geometry, but they are not limiting. Each work appears these have been given so many forms you can come back to it every time and see it in a new light.”
Udayan Vajpeyi, in setting the tone for the discussion, recounted Sage Vatsyayana’s enumeration of the ‘Shadanga’, the six elements of Indian painting. Rupabheda (the appearance and its variations), Pramaana (proportions), Bhaava (feelings and expressions), Laavanya (that which holds a viewer’s attention), Saadrishya (Similitude) and Varnikabhanga (the distinct use of colours) depict the nature of each element and their significance to the whole.
They are best represented in the miniature paintings of India for example, which has both figures and abstraction, he said.
Raza Foundation’s Art Dialogues features expert practitioners from the world of ideas, literature, visual arts, performing arts and various other disciplines. Sunday’s session was the fifth in the series. The discussion next month will be on “Linear Perspective in Art”, Vajpeyi informed.
The Foundation, set up by the late artist S H Raza, provides support and platforms for various arts, publications and fellowships, especially aimed at young talent.