On Monday 14 Jan 2008 1:25 pm, Charles Haynes wrote: > Then I'm confused, if patronage has never died out I don't understand > your statements "There is no money in creativity in India. If > creativity brings in the moolah, > the artists will come in." What do you mean? You said something else > that maybe I misunderstood "That Indian art died with the Islamic > invasions , but was revived as > Indo-Islamic art and architecture. All died with the British." If > patronage never died out then what died with the British? I'm not > trying to be confrontational - I don't understand what you meant.
Well the problem may be imprecision in my words. When you have a huge landmass and over one hundred milllion people for many centuries any generalization can never reflect the truth. Very little was totally killled, although some things were probably lost. A lot was almost terminally suppressed, but survived nevertheless. The sort of temple architecture and art that one sees from before the Mughal invasions tails off in later years. Indo Islamic art too "died" in a sense, after the British came. "Died" means that it reduced to negligible levels and no longer produced anything that is visible to anyone but core insiders. Classical dance however remained alive and healthy in the form of Bharatha Natyam, Kathak, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Mohiniattam and Odissi apart from dozens of other local folk dance forms. Carnatic classical music (of South India), both vocal and instrumental are alive and healthy, along with Hindustani classical of North India and local music traditions. So art was never absent or dead. It lived on in pockets within India unseen and unheard of by people such as yourself. The environment for art to spread among a larger percentage of the population was absent until recently. The explosion of Bollywood (which is hardly classical Indian art, but takes inputs from various artistes) is one manifestation of a rekindling of art in India. This is how moolah is making a difference to the promotion of art. But there is also a rekindling of interest in art in terms of painting, sculpture and architecture as a result of increasing wealth. And it is becoming quite acceptable and a good career option for young people to enter the five year fine arts course at Chitrakala Parishad in Bangalore. The degree leads on to careers in advertising and show business. There is every reason for me to believe that art coming out of India is likely to dominate large parts of the world in the same manner that say Hollywood or Western pop music have had their day in the sun. it is only a question of time and numbers. I believe I am living at a time when the explosion has just begun. shiv
