Auction for united colours of harmony
Times of India, 12 October 2008
Auctioning art for a cause is not a fresh idea by any stretch, and artists the world over are frankly fed up with being pestered for free painting
s for someone or other's pet cause. Sometimes, however, the dynamics are different. When the fundamentals of the art world-freedom , compassion and dignity-are in congress with those of the cause being espoused, artists become natural partners and give willingly and with feeling.
So, when the Sabrang Trust, which was set up in 1993 after the Mumbai riots, decided to hold a fund raiser, one of their trustees, lyricist Javed Akhtar, suggested an art auction. Sabrang, along with its sister concern, Citizens for Justice and Peace which was set up after the Gujarat riots of 2002, decided to go with the idea and curator Niyatee Shinde volunteered to coordinate the event. Shinde, who has organised nine Concern India and two BNHS auctions, approached artists all over India, and found most of them receptive.
On October 16, 64 works will go on the block at an auction conducted by Angira Arya. The proceeds will be used by Sabrang in its peace education programmes and its fights against communalism-most immediately , a petition against the attacks on Christians in Orissa.
Leading the art roster is the grand old man of the art world, Tyeb Mehta, who is also India's best-selling artist. Mehta, who is old and so ill that he is barely able to speak, and his wife Sakina nevertheless took the trouble to select a work and sent it to the auction . From Baroda, Gulammohammed Sheikh, otherwise chary of auctions, sent in a digital collage.
The elusive Rekha Rodwittiya, who had already given one of her works to Sabrang a few years ago, insisted on sending in a second painting . In fact, her stunning oil of a woman doing a serpentine back flip is the most expensive painting at the auction, priced at Rs 15 lakh. Arpana Caur especially created Dharti, a large green oil painting of a woman stretched out on one elbow. There are also two indigenous works, one Madhubani and the other Kalamkari, both by master craftsmen.
All told, there are works by 58 artists, both emerging and established , either sent in by them or by collectors, as in the case of the striking charcoal Akbar Padamsee head and the still-life Ara watercolour. From Raza, Anjolie Ela Menon, Nilima Sheikh, Chintan Upadhyay, Bose Krishnamachari, Lalitha Lajmi and Navjot Altaf to Gieve Patel, Jehangir Jani, Vivan Sundaram and Surendran Nair to others, too numerous to mention, the contributions were all made spontaneously and with care, said Shinde.
Adds Nandan Maluste, who along with co-trustees Cyrus Guzder and Anil Dharker, has been at the vanguard of organising the auction, "We have also received tremendous help from industry. We hope that a lot of regular buyers will come to the preview and to the auction. The paintings have been priced from Rs 50,000 upward, and many of them are affordable . If it's successful, we would like to make it an annual feature.''
Teesta Setalvad, trustee of Sabrang and tireless campaigner for communal harmony, says that their 14-year-old education programme, Khoj, on conflict resolution and peace education, is now taught in 75 schools in Maharashtra and Gujarat . The accent of the course is not didactic but designed to make children think. "You can't teach secularism ,'' says Setalvad. "But you can teach them to question things like media images. At the end of three years of intense interaction both with teachers and children, the classroom reflects a remarkable diversity in its thinking. Unfortunately , the uniform framework of teaching in our schools doesn't allow for this. For instance, there is no space for the history of the child or his or her family or their migratory history. We teach children to interview members in their family who are story-tellers . Bombay has an amazing diversity and it should be celebrated.''
SABRANG BENEFIT BID
What:
An auction featuring 60 works by India's leading artists
When:
Preview from October 13 to 15, between 11 am and 6 pm, at Art Desh-The Studio, 1st floor, Film Centre Building, 68 Tardeo Road, Mumbai
Auction (by invitation only):
Taj Land's End on October 16 at 7 pm
Enquiries:
660228/26603927
Proceeds:
All the proceeds will go to the Sabrang Trust
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