The most high profile auction of the year happened on World Earth Day, April 22, when Christie’s announced its A Bid to Save the Earth. An auction that was meant to raise funds for the planet also had a silent carbon neutral sale — selling a private lunch with eminent wedding dress designer Vera Wang and a visit to her boutique for a $10,000 shopping spree, lunch with actor Ted Danson with a painting from his personal art collection, a day on the sets with Hugh Jackman, and several other exotic travel packages and unique celebrity experiences. The much-hyped Green Auction, featuring loads of celebrities and a great deal of fanfare raised a whopping $1,387,000 to benefit four environmental organisations.
With art auctions raising moolah everywhere, whether in the US or in India, one wonders whether this is the only way to help the myriad causes attached to the planet. A corporate honcho, believer of all things green, and head of PBC Art Gallery in Delhi, Kamal Meattle welcomes ideas like the Green Auction. “Auctions do make people aware of the issues of climate change. But art, at large, can do much more,” says the CEO of Paharpur Business Centre & Software Technology Incubator Park.
Eminent art critic Keshav Malik agrees. He insists that the art and environment connection goes beyond just auctions and even recycling endeavours. “Considering that it is the planet’s beauty that inspires an artist, the connection between the two cannot go under a hammer. It is one’s works through which one must take up causes,” he says.
Delhi-based artist Arpana Caur is already working on the advice. A self-proclaimed environmentalist, she has been working towards saving trees in Delhi. “As far as the art fraternity goes, apart from painting environment-driven themes, we can actively protect trees — at least in our areas — and be alert and not complacent. I have done several free murals in Bengaluru and one in Delhi on this theme,” she says.
While the spirit to work for the environment — in artworks and outside — is catching on in India, there are attempts globally to make the medium more eco-friendly. Apart from some pigments in oil paint being toxic, paint thinners such as turpentine or mineral spirits are not only potentially toxic if used improperly, but also give off noxious odours and are highly flammable. These concerns are making painters go for so-called water mixable oil paints that behave as oil paints, clean up like acrylics and are ideal for those sensitive to chemical fumes. Utrecht, a Washington-based art supply chain sells a variety of water mixable oil paints online and at its retail locations across the USA. Besides there are companies like the California-based GLOB that crafts its paints from food-grade botanical extracts. Coloured by real fruits, vegetables, flowers and spices, GLOB paints are all-natural, non-toxic and free of chemicals, parabens, petroleum and synthetic preservatives. Since dark colours have the poisonous chemicals, the colour palette at GLOB is limited to just six tints, but is extendable with artists mixing as per their needs. Now, as paints can be mail ordered and available in dry-powdered formats (saving weight, money and energy while being shipped), users just need to add water and start painting the eco-friendly way!
So, while the use of these biodegradable paints catch up in India, artists can perhaps think of a desi auction that will raise funds for the planet.