The first of these two books titled, “Images changeantes de l’Inde et de l’Afrique” written by Geetha Ganapathy Dore and Michel Olinga and published by L’Harmattan carrying in its cover a painting by Devajyoti Ray talks about the changing aesthetics in modern Indian and African imagery. The book traces the influence of Pseudorealism as an emerging style whose influence can already be seen in the realm of various commercial blow-ups these days. The book also discusses at length the newer ideas that are similarly transforming the films, the literary and the popular art spaces.

New Book by Geetha Ganapathy Dore and Michel Olinga

The second book titled ‘Asian Art’ compiled by mobile references, makes a very large sweep across almost the whole of Asia and analyses the trends in these various new art destinations of Beijing, Shanghai, Seol, Mumbai, Singapore, Manila, Sharjah and Dubai. The book once again tells volumes about Pseudorealism and indicates why this comparatively unknown genre even a few years ago is suddenly becoming the most easily selling one.

So what is it that makes Pseudorealism such a hot thing suddenly? To start with, perhaps the genre’s new appeal lies in its easy comprehensibility. It does not require the assistance of any curator or a gallery speacialist (perhaps the two most hated words in the recession-hit art-world) to  make one understand a Ray work. As the world is now seeing the upsurge of new internet savvy generation that doubts almost anything that mainstream media peddles as news, Pseudorealism seems the most original style quite in line with this sentiment. One does not need to be an expert and yet not just love art but also understand it; this seems to be the central message of Ray.

Because of the European aesthetics, Gandhar Art had once recieved a lot of attention from the western press and the art works were collected by many European collectors and Museums. Now as Asia is emerging as a hub of contemporary art, a fresh look at the subcontinent’s past was long waited.

However the exhibition has seen also in the context of the destruction of the Bamian statues by Talibans in Afganistan a few years back at the height of US Taliban war. The destruction of these statues rekindled a kind of nostalgia in the west and riding this wave a series of gandhar based art exhibitions were held in many cities, like in Bonn (2008), in Zurich (2009) and now in Paris.

Gandhar Art at Guimet Musuem, Paris

The exhibition was not very novel as far as the displayed itmens were concerned, but the impact of this exhibition cannot be denied. A new interest in Pakistani Art is welcome as all such shows help in spilling over of a little limelight to the country and its art tradition as well.

Art literature in India is in a very nascent stage and most of what is published are sponsored by galleries to boost their own sales. Often an artist who has a book written on him or her is considered a good artist in not only India but probably entire Indian subcontinent. Noting this, many galleries have in the past three years have published books on their own artists. Such books hardly cover any true assessment of the artists and the reader gets nothing better than false eulogies written by paid writers.

We have thus seen a book on Paresh Maiti last year that claimed to have chronicled Maiti’s travel to Kerala. The book hardly tells much about the artist and for a serious reader of art such books can provide no real information. The book was launched before an exhibition and was thus meant to have very limited purpose of boosting sales of Maiti’s works. Such books are hardly any better than catalogues of exhibitions; only these have more pages and are hence more expensive.

Following the big galleries, many others had followed suit. Among the many artists on whom books were published included Manish Pushkale, Harshvardhan, Riyas Komu, Chintan Upadhyay, Bose Krishnamachari and many others. All these artists are new faces in Indian art and the time for such books were probably way too immatured. But the show continued. One estimate says that more than a thousand books on these artists had come up last year alone.

Vadhera Book Store is now bringing these books in a store. This is not likely to hel the real readers of art. What is more interesting is that the store keeps books of only those artists who are in Vadhera’s camp. Thus the store is likely to end up into a propaganda paltform rather than a true book store. The managers of Vadhera are aware of this and hence they do not expect much sale of these books either. To keep business running the store is thus selling posters, postcards, even handbags, art inspired fashion accessories and phone covers with prints of important paintings.

This assumes relevance as faced with recession, many galleries are now converting part of their galleries into book-stores, boutiques, etc. Hyderabad based Kalakriti Gallery had a book store for a long time. This is also true for some of the Bombay based galleries. But none of these galleries are into serious book selling business. The art-book business is thus more of a veneer for propaganda for in-house artists. Serious readers are not likely to benefit.

In Rushdie’s Midnight Children, the main protagonist is born at the midnight of 15th August, 1947 when India and pakistan wins their freedom. Then the protagonist charts his family history and finds that his grandfather was a Kashmiri. In the process of telling about his grandfather, Rushdie tells about the the generation of Kashmir problem. The same man then travels to Punjab and witnesses the Jalianwala Bagh massacre, then lands in Pakistan and then in Bangladesh to track the history of Bangladesh Liberation war and the state of India when PM Indira Gandhi had imposed emergency in India.

Events of epic dimension, landmarks in history and important personalities like Nehru, Jinnah, Gandhi, etc are thus sewn together for the western readers who can identify the Indian subcontinent only on the basis of these. The cock and bull stories thus created seldom match reality. Rushdie was never known to be a writer who is much read by the people whom he claims to represent. His language is also dull and his books are often very tedious to read. But so what? Readers of west is all that matters to people like Rushdie.

Now Rushdie is inspiring a generation of writers in the subcontinent and the Indian and Pakistani diaspora to write such stuff. No need to scratch one’s head on style. No need to find a coherent heart warming story either. And certainly there is no need to be real. The recepi for a good novel are as follows:

a) Pick up some imporatnt historical events

b) Pick up some important personalities from histroy who are still talked about

c) Join whatever you have picked. To do so make your protagonist travel to all these lands and meet such people who are somehow associated with these events and personalities.

The latest writer to have tried this marvellous technique is Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie.

In her latest book Burnt Shadows, Kamila’s protagonist is a Japanese lady who survives Nagasaki Bombing. Before the Bombing, she was married to a German soldier who had died fighting in the second world war. The German soldier’s sister lives in India. So the protagonist can now travel to to India and here she gets close to a Muslim man who suffers pangs of Partition and migrates to Pakistan. She follows this man to Pakistan later where the Muslim man’s son becomes a Islamist terrorist planning to attack USA. Finally the protagonist moves to USA where her sister-in-law who once lived in India, has also shifted. The sister-in-law’s  son has now joined the CIA so that the reader can now get the view of CIA also. The story finally ends with the 9-11 destruction of twin towers.

Epic in scope though, the question is ” Is it literature?” Badly written, unconvincing in its approach and sweep of events, such books are however the toasts of the west. The problem is that it is discouraging serious writers from attempting anything serious in the sub-continent. This may be good for some individual writers like Kamila Shamsie, for the overall development of literature in the sub-continent, this is something we have to guard against.

A recent exhibition in Dubai of art works of Colin David brought back the memory of one such dark phase in Pakistan. Colin David, a British by race, but a Pakistani by birth was born in 1937 in Karachi. He had his art education at the Punjab University, Lahore, when the Fine Arts Department opened its doors to male students in 1956. After taking his MFA from the Punjab University Fine Arts Department in 1961, Colin was awarded a scholarship for post-graduate studies at the Slade School of Art, London.

Colin could have stayed back in London and build up a successful career in art there but had chosen to return to his birth place and joined the faculty of the Fine Arts Department of the Punjab University. He remained there until 1964, and then joined the National College of Arts.

Colin David's Nude Study

Colin’s signature works included elements of Op art fused with portraits and landscapes in classical genre. His paintings often had a nude woman in the centre. Nudity is not necessarily linked to eroticism and Colin’s works could not be classified as erotic art. For sometime Colin did have a smooth sail as his works became popular with the art –students. But the dictatorial regime of Gen Zia ul Haq put Colin in a corner. The new military regime brought in draconian censorship laws, where women could not be shown without traditional clothes and dupatta. National policies decreed that figure studies were no longer artistically acceptable.

Yet Colin decided to stay back and exhibit his works mostly in his own studio for selected viewers. His paintings could not be sold openly and so he had to export them abroad where European collectors bought his works.

Though he had stopped selling his works in Pakistan, Colin continued to exhibit his work discreetly until 1990, when an invitation to a private viewing of work at Colin David’s house fell into the wrong hands. Shamefully, the event became a black spot in Pakistan’s art history, as a gang of young men, leaving one of their numbers armed with a gun on the doorstep of the house, burst into the artist’s home brandishing sticks. They proceeded to destroy a number of canvases, including a portrait of the artist’s young daughter.

Today none of he important works of Colin David exist in Pakistan and an entire generation of Pakistani youngsters lost the opportunity of viewing one of Pakistan’s most prolific artists.

The attack on MF Husain in India’s biggest cosmopolitan city by a band of religious fanatics brings us back to that era in Pakistan when Colin David was attacked. It seems things do not quite change in the sub-continent.