Alka Pande Comes Out With Book On India Art

Hindustan Times
Saturday, 21st February 2009

Alka Pande, an eminent art historian and curator of Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, released her book “Indian Art” The international Sensation: A Collector’s Hand book’ at the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi event at Government Museum and Art Gallery today.

Pande, an alumnus of Panjab University, also delivered a talk on contemporary India Art.

“When we think of traditional Indian art, we think of ananda, happiness. But new Western art has become like Damien Hirst’s, who frozw dead sharks in formaldehyde. They cannot understand figures, but identify with abstractness. That is what Indian artists are painting now. So, our aesthetics have found a place in the international works, like works of Subodh Gupta, Arpita Singh and Jaganath Panda,” she said.

She then showed works of Indian and Diaspora artists like Mona Rai, Brinda Miller, Jitish Kallat, Justin Punmani, Kanchan Chander, Bhavani Katoch, Suhasini Kejriwal, Hema Upashayay, Remen Chopra, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Seema Kohli, Seema Mehra Aggarwal, Reyaz Komu and Saba Hasan.

These artists, she said, were experimenting with new materials like silver foil, industrial paint, stones and photographs.

“Yet, to be number 1 in the art market, like Subodh, it is all about packaging, “she stated. Pande criticized the Indian panorama at the recent Madrid art fair for being “pretentious.”

Prof. D.C. Bhattacharya, Pande’s mentor, also delivered a talk and said that to appreciate art, one has to go beyond the surface.

Art Scope

Chandigarh Newsline, The Indian Express
Saturday, 21st February 2009
By Jaskiran Kapoor

Why should we buy? If that’s the case, what should we buy? should it be for the sole purpose of artistic satisfaction, a display of bank balance or like gold, a solid future investment? Is art really worth our time,money and that six by ten wall space? The exotica, the erotica, the extravaganza, India is all this and much more. As a result, when it comes to the art corridors. India is a brand to reckon with. And in this art scope, art historian and curator Dr. Alka Pande couldn’t have timed the launch of her book better –Indian Art, the International Sensation: A Collector’s Handbook, Her lecture too, the A..B..C.. of Contemporary Indian Art, organized courtesy the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi. “The aesthetics, buying and collecting of art,” Dr. Pande takes to the stage and gets on with the artonomics.

“Art was like a prayer, a puja which gives pure ananda, bliss, but now, it’s reduced to a commodity driven by money. As a result, in all this ruckus of putting a commercial value to it. I decided to come up with this book which guides on everything you need to know about art,”Dr. Pande proceeded to present the different aspects of art, the aesthetic value, beauty factor and aspects of collecting and buying. “Indian art is deeply conceptual, and somewhere at the turn of modernism, it got stuck in a time warp. But things are changing, and Indian art’s fast capturing the imagination of the world,” she says. It’s the materiality, the plural culture, the diversity, feels Dr. Pandey that makes our art fascinating. “India has so many layers to it, and its aesthetic value has made the ‘mad in India’ label a global cosmopolitan arena,” she adds that it’s the contemporary art that sells for it does not ‘daunt the international buyer. “Like Raza’s work, anyone can understand it, whereas our traditional art is full of myths, allegories and complexities, with multi-headed and many armed gods and goddesses. Talking about saleability, she mentions the works of ‘blue chip’ artists like Raza, Nataraj Sharma, Arpita Singh, Riyaz Komu, new generation artist like Mona Rai, Jagannath Panda, Sujata Bajaj et al. With new forms and materials in practice, the vocabulary of art is changing. “Photography is here to stay. You cannot sculptures and cinema as art….. There’s a brand new language that’s evolving,” Dr Pande believes in buying, but with caution. “Keep in mind the aspect of commerce because 80 percent of people match art with their upholstery! it’s recession and even Husain has cut his prices by 40 percent, So train your eye, see as much art work as you want to, learn about the artist, his background, the politics, hire a good art consultant, check with a restorer, and as a budding artist, always network, be promotional and proactive for packaging is what works and sells.” It does.