Giving modern and contemporary Indian art a global spin, a grand traveling exhibition is a unique collaborative effort with the respective hosting museum, featuring internationally renowned artists and emerging talented practitioners. ‘Indian Highway VI’ has made its way into the city of Beijing.
Summing up the importance of this whole exercise, Margherita Stancati of The Wall street Journal had mentioned in a news report: "The traveling show’s Very Big Picture is a good way to give people–and potential buyers–a first introduction to Indian art. An art critic who reviewed the London show, for instance, openly admitted that before then he had never even heard of either Mr. Gupta, the star of India’s contemporary art scene, nor of M.F. Husain, the Modernist painter who is widely considered the country’s greatest living artist. The chances are this is the case for most other visitors too.
“Questions can be asked about the very concept of country-specific shows in general. Sure, knowing an artist’s background can help place the work in context, but it can also get misleading. Does someone like Bharti Kher, born in London, necessarily have more in common with other artists from India than she does with Damien Hirst? There’s another risk involved in an India-only show: that the 'Indianness' of the work on view (think bindis, rickshaws, tiffins etc) may not only overshadow–but perhaps also take precedence–over intrisnic artistic merit. Some did argue this was the case when the exhibit opened at the Serpentine, indicating the works selected engaged overtly with their Indian identity to make it more palatable to a Western audience.”
However, on the positive side, the show has become more coherent than when it first was launched: not only are the artworks on view strictly contemporary but its focus on themes like urbanization provides it a much sharper edge. It’s indeed an ambitious and meticulously arranged traveling show that carefully maps contemporary Indian art trends. And by the time ‘Indian Highway’ finally reaches New Delhi, the capital city of India, it is bound to get even better.
Summing up the importance of this whole exercise, Margherita Stancati of The Wall street Journal had mentioned in a news report: "The traveling show’s Very Big Picture is a good way to give people–and potential buyers–a first introduction to Indian art. An art critic who reviewed the London show, for instance, openly admitted that before then he had never even heard of either Mr. Gupta, the star of India’s contemporary art scene, nor of M.F. Husain, the Modernist painter who is widely considered the country’s greatest living artist. The chances are this is the case for most other visitors too.
“Questions can be asked about the very concept of country-specific shows in general. Sure, knowing an artist’s background can help place the work in context, but it can also get misleading. Does someone like Bharti Kher, born in London, necessarily have more in common with other artists from India than she does with Damien Hirst? There’s another risk involved in an India-only show: that the 'Indianness' of the work on view (think bindis, rickshaws, tiffins etc) may not only overshadow–but perhaps also take precedence–over intrisnic artistic merit. Some did argue this was the case when the exhibit opened at the Serpentine, indicating the works selected engaged overtly with their Indian identity to make it more palatable to a Western audience.”
However, on the positive side, the show has become more coherent than when it first was launched: not only are the artworks on view strictly contemporary but its focus on themes like urbanization provides it a much sharper edge. It’s indeed an ambitious and meticulously arranged traveling show that carefully maps contemporary Indian art trends. And by the time ‘Indian Highway’ finally reaches New Delhi, the capital city of India, it is bound to get even better.
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