Curator’s Note for Intuitive-logic II (1997)

Reasons for Organising The Intuitive-Logic II

HEART is concerned with helping to build an educational infrastructure for the Indian Contemporary Arts. This demands finding a new balance between creativity and economics, so as to transform idealism into material action. The sustainability of this effort comes through the institutionalizing process one will follow in the coming years. At present specific projects are being structured so as to lay a clear foundation.

Building an integrated institutional and educational framework in the arts, from scratch, without major corporate donations, or government funding, is not easy. To do so through pioneering projects and at a pace which most find unsustainable adds to the task. Yet many preconceptions have to be radically changed. Risks have to be taken.

Improving the quality, scale and pace of the activity, are three key areas to be tackled if action is to be sustained and attitudes changed. This requires the pursuance of infrastructure-building processes on a war footing; nothing less is acceptable. More than that, nothing less is viable for India.

At present HEART’s focus is upon the Indian contemporary fine arts. Regarding the financial infrastructure of Indian contemporary art, it is still in its infancy. Without a vibrant financial infrastructure for the arts, creating a credible educational base becomes difficult. Without a firm educational base there is little chance of contemporary culture and its creativity playing a key role in the nation’s development.

In this context auctions are one important trigger and mechanism in increasing awareness regarding the financial aspects of art. They can achieve this end by creating a fair buying and selling environment. However, this efficiency works in practice only if the subject under the hammer has a knowledgeable audience and the works on sale have a clear aesthetic credibility.

At this stage of infrastructure development, auctions on Indian modern and contemporary art should only sell key historical works which are required by art collectors, but not easily available in the open market. This act of knowledgeable discrimination is crucial in structuring the auction. At the same time it is the duty of the organizers to provide an educational perspective so as to deepen this understanding.

So far international auctions have not been able to create the kind of credible impact necessary, despite promoting a very important increase in awareness. To be fair it is not their duty. Thus the task before us is to firstly organize significant exhibitions-auctions within India so as to consolidate the interest domestically. Only after this phase can a serious international credibility emerge. The Indian public must be willing today significant prices for its own art. Only after observing such sustained activity will the international community give deeper momentum to the appreciation.

Also, an auction should set clear standards for pricing. The price paid at a credible auction becomes a benchmark, because competition and information has been fair and readily available, thereby generating a healthy demand and supply. This confidence then clarifies criteria for pricing, furthering a systematic appreciation of the subject, to be sustained through the network of schools, museums, galleries and dealers. However, today pricing in art occurs in a relatively insecure climate where many artists and dealers are haphazardly and arbitrarily increasing prices. Many play clever games with buyers, and when such prices are not sustained in public a lack of credibility affects all. The up and coming artists especially indulge in such practices, in the hope of creating a name for themselves. This financial jugglery compensates for a lack of belief that critical recognition will come their way. The long term consequences of such practices on art, aesthetics and its infrastructure are detrimental for all concerned. However, criticizing the issue only takes relevance if one can improve the situation, and open out new alternatives.

It is with immense reservation that I decided to organize this project. Only by believing in the key transitory role such an event can play in HEART’s wider vision have I sustained the motivation. Also, I realized that the knowledge and resources necessary to structure an internationally credible auction in India, without using a foreign auction house is not in the power of most organizations. Yet this is a situation that needs to be changed. Hopefully, one has structured an auction the nation will be proud to participate in, and in the process allow others, more committed to this field, to continue and improve the work.

Added to these objectives the fact that some funds will be raised by HEART does help. However, given we have not sponsored such a major event, and that we are only taking a percentage from the seller, and charging no buyer’s premium, the financial rewards will not be significant. Further, in needing to serve the art pricing issues, we have not even used our charitable status to distort the pricing, and so pieces of art will only be bought because of their inherent aesthetic value rather than directly supporting our cause.

I believe that charity, like any other discipline, must learn to fight its own material battles without a begging bowl or doing disservice to the area it seeks support from. This requires charity to understand more deeply the genuine power of its values and the ability to forge material bridges across the world within every sector of daily life. This can only be accomplished if a genuine love underlies the work, and that this love is somehow transformed into a vibrant inspirational force persuading strangers to go beyond themselves.


Charity and Creativity:
a few issues of action

In progressing along this path since returning home in 1993 I have come to believe that a few key principles for action need to be obeyed if one is to successfully help build an integrated educational infrastructure for India. Firstly, whatever action is taken, must be carried on at a national scale, to whatever extent feasible. This is the bare minimum starting point required for any universal relevance or vision. Given the need to be local-specific, it is all the more important to sustain this wider reach, thereby balancing the negative consequences of regionalized action and attitudes.

Secondly, this integrated effort must be able to simultaneously tackle and absorb many disparate & contradictory forces with an equanimity of attitude.

Thirdly, the pace of change must be initially seen as unsustainable, and yet somehow feasible, if attitudes are to be changed.

Fourthly, work must be accomplished as if no distinction exists between being the president or the prune. Whatever the degree of delegation, no effort can start and sustain anything in a developing nation without this all encompassing habit. No work must be seen as trivial, and yet time is scarce, and so how to evolve a sense of proportion? There are few previous guidelines to be used as reference at this point. Creating new standards seems inevitable.

Finally, if creativity and its aesthetics is to play a pivotal role in the development of our nation’s values then the process by which a movement is to be created must stem from a space outside the economic, government and corporate worlds, while simultaneously building new bridges within and with these sectors. This implies energizing an alternative value system which disciplines the economic and religious forces, thereby making them more effective.

Energising such a value-system demands that the creative mind takes on a complementary battle. Today, it is not enough to just impose on paper, canvas, film or stage one’s creative identity. The need id to build the dissemination process and infrastructure by which the creative expression reaches out, and is sustained for history to cut out new cultural traditions and institutions. In this task it is not enough to ask the corporate or government sectors to take on the process. They have their own priorities and constraints, and will implicitly subjugate and compromise aesthetics to their needs. Yet bridges need to be built.

One manner to proceed is a reliance on philanthropy. Yet philanthropy does not exist today. If it is to be rejuvenated many steps need to be systematically taken. It is this process of activating a voluntary redistribution of wealth, hand in hand with fostering economic growth, which alone can solve India’s chronic inequality.

Government welfare schemes are one manner, and present charity and NGO work is another. Nevertheless, this is far from sufficient. Charity needs to wake up, and realize the urgency of the task before itself.

Personally I have directed my efforts in building new links between creativity and charity. HEART has been structured to help institutionalize this process. These are early days and failure is as likely as any other possibility. After all, just about all of us can spark idealism in others at some point, and maybe even energise others to work together systematically, and share time and resources, for a short while. Yet, on the whole, that’s it. The togetherness soon breaks apart, individuals fail to institutionalise, and if something is built it fails to sustain its integrity amid the corrupting logic which surrounds.

So how does one try to change the situation?

To understand the relationship between creativity and economics is one area most are floundering amid. It requires a deeper re-examination. The nature of the dialogue between the modern cultural and corporate entities is still raw, despite India possessing a rich tradition of patronage and support for the arts. Essentially the relationship must be based upon mutual respect, and not need. Yet today need has left little room for respect.

Within the poorest urban sections commerce stops creativity. Few taunt hunger for art. Of those who manage, the gifted become legends, others await recognition, most survive on the joy of the process. For the mainstream commerce allows access; it allows creativity to communicate. It also dictates the process by which recognition gets established. It interferes and yet allocates. For the resourceful, creativity can become the weapon with which commerce is fought and disciplined. Creativity can allow the mind to detach itself from economic logic, and twist a rare fusion where both creativity and commerce are revealed as but stepping stones to the day. Whatever the relationship, artistic creativity and commerce must never marry.

Yet if commerce is to extend its hand with respect and humility, what does it gain? There are many ways and reasons how the economic system and society benefits from a vibrant creative culture.

The key virtue of the creative mind is that it grasps uncertainty with a rare freedom. There is the ability to allow uncertainty to reveal its own logic, as its own pace. There is no preconceived compulsion to find answers. As a result the wisdom and joys of the learning process are rarely subjugated for some final form. This focus on process allows trial and error to stay at the root of the creative logic. Self-criticism, that too with joy, however morose the personality, is the essence of sustaining the day.

It is this compulsion for self-criticism with joy which is at the heart of risk taking and experimentation. Each educational institute and corporate house needs to nurture this risk-taking attitude.

It is with this openness of mind that comes an environment which respects rationality, so creating platforms for positive criticism; an environment which learns to tolerate differences with empathy; is open to new ideas and international exchange with a greater zest for learning; is capable of tackling issues regarding ecology, population, gender, hygiene, and nutrition more effectively; is capable of disciplining the raw dogmas of superstition more calmly; is willing to respect another’s privacy and property as a clear rule; and is able to transform violence into quiet, where the only war waged is within.

These are the basic tenents of civilization building, and it is the growth of creative culture which deepens this process. Yet the process of transforming ideals into material action can no longer be leased out. The creative mind and intelligentsia need to break free once again from the complacency and disillusionment which seems deeply embedded in our day. We need to join hands whatever the differences and show the nation with clear material work the rare discipline a rigorous and idealistic mind possesses.