Public art needs help

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Dandi March as Gyarah Murti in Delhi

Statues of men in medieval armour on horseback, Rani Lakshmi Bai, sundry national leaders as per the region and community preference at various corners and roundabouts are what pass for public art in India. Some of this statuary is actually well executed but for the rest it is ghastly and disproportionate, being more of an eyesore rather than any reminder of artistic endeavour.

Some efforts to allay this total lack of art in the public space did appear in the immediate period post-independence when urban policy makers did realise the need to construct new symbols of collective and democratic power and thus we have the truly monumental sculpture of Gandhiji’s Dandi March, also known as Gyarah Murti in Delhi.
A policy dedicated to having urban art commissions whose mandate was to make the city spend a part of their budget on public art was also promulgated, under which some projects such as murals on WHO, School of Planning and Architecture and other such buildings came up, along with some steel and concrete sculptures. But these have long since been reclaimed by the urban chaos that marks Indian cities and even residents have forgotten that a particular sculpture by Sankho Chaudhary or Haku Shah actually exists around them. Maintenance, renewal and even recommissioning of art to reflect the aspirations and needs of the residents is the order of the day.
Regional and mofussil towns have not even conceptualised or thought about public funded projects though a lone crusader like Nek Chand was able to create an entire garden with elaborate statuary out of ceramic debris without let or hindrance. Of course, typically, later it was appropriated by the city administration so that now it is a major tourist attraction in Chandigarh.
Public art needs to stand out, define the character of a town and its people, and whether it is supported by the government or private institutions, art such as Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor is the centerpiece of Chicago or the Cow Project in Europe.