[1]The spectrum of movement in contemporary art in India as elsewhere has veered from AGIT Prop “Art for Ideology’s Sake” to the avant-garde art for art’s sake which eschews any ideology or life form outside of art but pre-fronts instead the ideology and grammar of art-ism, an ideology of fine art etc.
In the vein of the 1955 movie Rebel Without A Cause what is espoused is “art without a cause.” This is in part because in the unipolar post-modern world the dominant discourses treat ideological or culturally rooted art as aesthetically inferior to non-referential or avant-garde art. Also in part due to modernist synthesis and redefinition of art. It may be an understatement then to claim that a whole epoch and class of art objects gets devalued or ignored.
Avant garde or connoisseur studies gloss over historio-cultural aspects of art resulting in an almost analytical myopia. These included blindness to art rooted in cultural life-forms, syncretic knowledge or radical political ideas.
I would like to suggest that most contemporary works of art are self-conscious, created with modern ideology or concepts of art and aesthetics in mind. Thus an informed response needs to regard these underpinnings just as we would regard the emergence of syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in relation to what is today termed Sufi or tantric art.
There is thus a need to expand the scope of ‘art’ in India, and the impact ‘art’ has on its producers and viewers (as well as the construction of such viewers). The nexus of historical occurrences and their impact on art have an inbuilt legitimisation on the art.
Art, as practised today, seems to avoid protest and ideology, and even seems to be negating its own roots through its denial both of aesthetic, tradition, convention and history in general and the art historical and canonical in particular.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/avante1jpg-164