Indian Art Exhibits in London

To bring the exhibit spaces from all the present galleries marked in the above plan to point E, which becomes the new area to exhibit art with permanent galleries that run throughout the year. 

The building is the Indian Embassy in London. 

  

The past 5 years have seen Exhibitions of Contemporary Indian Art in varied places in London ranging from British Museum, Serpentine Gallery, Victoria Albert Museums to smaller gallery spaces in the city.

Indian Contemporary Art Exhibits around the World

Indian Contemporary Art has been showcased in the past 5 years at many important 

museums around the world. From the Mori Art Museum, Japan to MOCA, Shanghai and 

even the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Initial Proposed Sites

PROPOSED SITES AROUND THE WORLD
Major Cities are chosen around the world which has substantial population from
the sub-continent area, which would help mitigate the system and re-inforce the art
scenario in the surrounding context.
Cities marked with red dots becomes the major art exhibit cities. Cities marked with yellow dots would have mobile art exhibits.

Mobile Exhibits

CHANEL Mobile Art Exhibit
The exhibit travelled around in Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, Paris and Moscow.

A Travelling Artists Museum
The Mobile Museums, challenged the traditional notion of a museum as a continuous
memory institution with a permanent residence.
The Mobile Museums tour from Berlin over Vienna to Barcelona was conceived as a
Travelling Artists Museum. Public Art Lab Berlin, an interdisciplinary platform for
intercultural exchange, invited artists to design their individual museum.

Articles

• BEIJING— Adjacent to the ice-clad mountains on the southwest border of China sits India, another civilization with ancient roots that is now ascending the global stage, drawing the attention of the world with the increasing influence of its culture, politics, art, and art market. This month, a group show of Indian contemporary artists made their China debut at Tang Contemporary gallery in Beijing’s famed 798 Art District. The show, which closes August 1, is the brainchild of Indian-British curator Shaheen Merali, the former director of Berlin’s Hall of World Cultures and the 2006 Gwangju Biennial. Titled The 11th Hour, the show features works by Indian artists working in India, as well as by expatriates living around the world. “It is about the time, one hour until midnight, which is the very moment when people feel the most vulnerable, both mentally and physically,” Shaheen explains of the show's title. "It raises the question — what are people thinking at this very moment?” The very last hour of the day seems to be when the tension of dealing with the pressing issues of today’s world comes to a head for everyone.

... continued ...

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35040/the-11th-hour-contemporary-indian-artists-debut-in-china/

• London hasn’t quite had the sunny beginnings of an Indian summer, yet things are a little warmer on the art front. Several excellent exhibitions around the city feature artists from the subcontinent and subjects ranging from ancient Mughal portraits to explorations of contemporary Indian art. This flurry of shows is not new. Last year saw ‘Indian Highway’ at the Serpentine Gallery, a tremendous display of works that explored the importance of road travel in India; ‘Indian Summer’ at the British Museum which had, among other things, a rare exhibition of paintings from the royal court of Jodhpur; and ‘Maharaja: the Splendour of India’s Royal Courts’ at the Victoria & Albert.

... continued ...

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/the-affair-continues/392142/

Modernity at Large

Athleticism

“FIRST MOVEMENT: from the structure to the figure - ISOLATION - ATHLETICISM
SECOND MOVEMENT: from the figure to the structure - DISSIPATION - CONTRACTION

The contour as a place as an intervention, is in fact the place of an exchange in two
directions: between the material structure and the figure, and between the figure and
the field. The contour is like a membrane through which this double exchange flows.
Something happens in both directions.”
- Gilles Deleuze - Francis Bacon, the logic of sensation

FIRST:
Isolate a structure, destroy the monotonicity of its existing system and the rigid structure
and intervene in terms of its form, spaces, functions and meaning.
Extrude a new figure and meaning out of it.
By adding athleticism to the existing monotonous structure it ends up giving a new
direction to the system.

SECOND:
The athleticism acts and happens at one instance to a number of instances while
intervening the structure at various points.
The athleticism then leads and moves back to the structure, dissipitating its forces and
leading to the balanced form and spaces.

This process of athleticism and dissipitation would take place at various instances and
happens in various directions throughout the process.

DE- contextualize

The term takes into consideration analyzing the existing system, categorizing it into its key components, that is,

Officialize

Localize

Objectify

and then reassemble it looking towards a new configuration without losing the essence of the original.

DE- officialize

A space which is under official authority and control, having very strict purposes and functions. To de-officialize and give a breathing space in some areas and make a lesser un-official meaning and relationship to the existing structure. A more informal arrangement to a rigid infra-structural function.

DE- localize

To move away from a native or usual locality, to broaden the range or scope of free from influences. Leave the influence of 20th century Indian architecture and delocalize the spaces.

DE- objectify

A place, an activity, a built form are part of the regular function and routine. This objectification becomes part of the cultural constructions which inform and guide the behavior of everything in and around it. To bring down the source energy of an existing system and bring up a more vibrant energy to it.

Scenario: Micro

Artists exhibit their works in small rooms acting as galleries and at times on street sides which limits their scope of advancement in terms of clientele and exposure.

Young artists have their studios in lesser used buildings. Their exposure gets limited to the outside world as the contacts are lesser and ends up being difficult to sell their art.
Many upcoming contemporary artists from the Indian sub-continent in New York have there studios in run down buildings making it difficult for them to exhibit their work and earn a decent living.

Scenario: Macro

Art Radar Asia News is one of the organization which conducts original research and scans global news sources to bring selected topical stories about the taste-changing, news-making and the up and coming in Asian contemporary art.

Indian artist Anish Kapoor’s solo at Royal Academy – what did the critics call it? Performance art

A common man uncommonly direct – Indian contemporary sculptor Subodh Gupta in conversation in Hong Kong.

Top 10 most influential contemporary art collectors – Apollo Magazine
Lekha and Anupam Poddar
Lekha Poddar, from Delhi, began collecting in the late 1970s and her son Anupam in 2000. Together they recently set up the Devi Art Foundation. They now have 7,000 works of Indian art, ranging from tribal to contemporary (with some from neighbouring countries).

Scenario: Macro

                              

These are some of the gallery spaces, online auctions and exhibitions that are currently working towards bringing contemporary Indian Arts to the outside world.

Nonetheless they are too small of an organization to exhibit a good amount of contemporary pieces of art.

      

Historically Indian Art was more focused into depicting sculptures of Indian God and goddesses. In the late 18th century the limelight shifted to more of daily life depiction in arts.

But as the thinking of the common man started to move with the global language, the art scene also took a  different turn and delved more into newer forms of art like abstraction and other form of liberal arts.

Introduction

Historically Indian Art can be traced from as far back as 2500 BC. The art intertwines with the cultural history, religions and philosophies which place art production and patronage in social and cultural contexts.

The artists in that period of time portrayed the social and cultural aspects of those times. As modern times progress the thinking and ideas of the common Indian has changed with it. The reflection of these ideas is also seen in the works of contemporary Indian artists as well.

Artists and Sculptors, to name a few like M.F. Husain and Anish Kapoor have gained international fame with their art and exhibitions.

Then there are Contemporary Indian Art collectors like the Poddar Family who have an art collection of around 7000 contemporary and historic art pieces, collected over a span of around 30-40 years.

Upcoming artists have also started to get recognition outside of India for their art. Even then a large part of contemporary artists from the Indian sub-continent with extra-ordinary talent remain unknown due to less exposure and opportunities to showcase their works at a global level.

Therefore a need arises to create an atmosphere, a system where contemporary artists and Art Collectors can reach out and exhibit their collections and works to a global audience. The system should reflect the ethics and ethos of the diverse culture of the country.

Various attempts have been undertaken to expand and present the works of contemporary artists to a global audience but they have been minuscule in terms of small gallery spaces, as compared to the amount of artists out there.

Indian Art exhibited globally is the historic art which has been handed down from centuries, of figures and sculptures of gods and goddesses, which is a very important part of the Indian culture.

But, it is now required to bring the new ideas of present artists and art collectors of the Indian sub-continent out, which would give them a podium to showcase the ever growing art scene of the country.

Manifesto

• Globalization has widened the gap and created an imbalance between the    rich and the poor within national boundaries. The aim is to bring indifferent opportunities to the both these categories.

• Use Architecture as a tool to manifest the weakened, disempowered artists morph out of their regional and national boundaries and reveal on a globalized, transnational scale.

• To evade the ideas of nationalism and exceptionalism, emphasize on international rather than national goals.

• De-contextualize contemporary local art from the Indian Sub-Continent area and transform it into a system. A flexible, opportunistic and mobile form of organization.

• Post- Colonization the thoughts of the masses are forever shaped by many provocative outside forces. The intent is to bring out the real contemporary emerging artists.