My visit to the art gallery

Recently, I was watching the hindi movie 'Welcome'.It was an 'okay' kind of movie.Hold on,dear friends, I am not giving any movie review here.One scene in the movie, particularly raced my thoughts to my 'arty' experience years back.

But first, a little about the scene in the movie.Anil kapoor is a loyal henchman of 'Nana Patekar' who plays a mafioso .But Anil has another hobby of making 'live portraits'. That is, he is an 'artistic goon' who would hold anybody at any place ,any time ,at his gun point,and threaten them to pose for his 'live portraits'.Nana is on the lookout for a good match for his beloved sister,Sanjana[Katrina Kaif].One day Anil shows him the live portrait of Akshay Kumar,whom he happens to see on the road and paints his potrait on the spot ,right in the middle of a traffic jam. ' Bhai..here is our Sanjana's prospective groom'.Nana asks him 'But where is he ..puzzled and looks at the potrait.He strains his eyes and looks at the' traffic jam live portrait'. Amidst all the things,cars,vehicles and traffic he manages to find a human figure , which according to the proud artist Anil, belongs to Akshay kumar,the prospective groom. Nana strains his eyes and finally finds something 'resembling a human figure' on top of a car.He just stares again ,not dissappointing his best goon Anil ,and then concedes with having seen it.

This reminded me of a similar experience at an art gallery.I was working with a firm near Flora Fountain,Mumbai CST.Two of my very close friends,my colleagues were with me. We would roam during the one hour lunch break,take a walk along the bustling roads of Flora Fountain ,have a quick read of the books in pavement book stalls, admire Victorian buildings and structures which are the pride of Mumbai.
One of my friends,suggested one day "let's visit the Art Gallery nearby.

We went, and spent twenty minutes or so there.Being an admirer of any art,lover of vibrant colours ,of course only from a layman's[woman]angle, though I am not arty ,I enjoyed some really colourful work put up for exhibition.The artists brush showed a flair,the splashes of colours,strokes and textures and paintings of landscapes, sceneries,human portraits dazzled me.Simply marvellous.I was loving the experience.It was a great idea to have come here and marvelled at some really beautiful creations.

Then,telling my friends 'I will just come ,wait for me", I wandered off to the adjacent hall,nearby,in the premises where some huge canvas paintings caught my eye. There was a man,clad in 'Jhabba',with long hair and Kolhapuri chappals,standing with a lady and another man. I went over to the first painting in the hall.I stood there staring at it for a while. I tilted my head from right to left and then from left to right,straightened up,thinking, may be the man in 'Jhabba' was the artist[we know the men in Jhabba are either artists,newsreporters or writers,'courtesy movies'],so it would be not 'arty' to stare at the painting'.So I continued to' look 'at the painting and 'admire' it .It was a splash[should not say muddle] of every possible colour .As if a baby has just dipped a brush in as many colours, as it could have laid its hands on and just shaken its little hands, vigourously on the canvas.

I looked closer,then my eye caught an important object which gave an altogether new meaning to my 'understanding' of the art work. I could 'just' manage to see one hand with a thumb and index finger joined[as if in a meditating gesture] and then when I looked down further I could see a boat like structure with a 'sail' and 'mast' on top it.I thought it was a boat,now that is what 'I saw'.'Okay, so the person whose finger this is, is probable meditating on a boat",maybe symbolically shown by the artist.I tried to understand the painting.The thing about such paintings,is that we can imagine whatever we see and see whatever we imagine, you see.

'Interesting', I thought, and moved to the next painting.It was the one closest to where the 'artist like man ' and his two friends were standing. Again I stared at it,but to the same effect. And tried to find something, at least a boat or at least a finger or thumb like the previous painting.But this one was a total mystery to me.The splash of dark greens,blacks,browns and crimsons going in circles and zig-zag and every direction didnot tell me anything. Or rather,' I' was absolutely not good at admiring paintings.I thought I must look even more carefully.Maybe I will understand the painting, if I try .But the more I looked at it,the more I was confused.But, I could see one thing very clearly.Below the painting,was the name,'by Ashish' and even further below on the wall
'FOR SALE' was written in bold letters with a 'price tag'.I just blinked and gave the painting one final look ,to see if I could 'try' and make something out of it.Then I resigned. 'It must be a great piece of work, I am sure it is,it is priced so high'. So I moved on to the next.

Now,the 'artist like' man was talking to the man and the lady .I could hear them clearly.I quietly moved over to the other side , there was a pillar nearby and a painting next to it. So I went over to the other side of the pillar to 'stare' at [ sorry admire]that one.Pretending to be looking at the painting,I overheard their conversation. The lady said 'Ashish,you could have given this bracelet,this one here, on the hand,an even more ethnic touch ,you see'.

'Oh' so,the 'artist like' man was Ashish,whose name I saw in the other painting.I had thought so ,that he was the mastermind[masterhand] behind all these paintings, but now I knew for sure.Ashish replied 'No,Alka ,you see,this is not a hand,this is a flute with a rope around it'.

The man standing with them quickly interrupted saying ' Alka,as you know, Ashish, loves music,he is trying to tell, here,that music has no boundaries and one can not bind it with anything.It is universal" To this Ashish replied 'No Rajendra,I am trying to tell here, how a flautist has stopped playing his flute any more,as he mourns his lost love,can you see the tear drop in that corner '. Alka ,the lady said 'Yeah,oh yeah ,I can see it.'Ashish,I am so proud of you and your work,it's beeeeautiful,keep it up".Ashish said in a grateful tone 'Thanks Alka'.Rajendra, the man added 'Yes, Ashish,keep up the good work'.This discussion made me even more unsure.

He then said 'here, come and have a look at this one',and he ushered them to another painting at the end of the room. I moved over to Ashish's 'flute painting' to confirm their discussion, I could see neither flute nor bangle nor rope nor tear drop nor a hand. I stared and stared until tears were about to form in my eyes .'Maybe I am not good enough for this',I thought 'maybe sitting on the computer at the desk for the whole day,my eyesight was dimming a bit'.

I had certainly given it a 'sincere try' for the 'respect I had and have for art and artists.but that was it. How I wished I could ,but could not go over to the 'artist Ashish' and congratulate him for his work which I had tried to,but didnot understand at all.[Those paintings haunted me for many days].

Now, my lunch time was coming to an end,I had to rush back to my office. I wished Ashish,the artist, good luck,'only in my mind', of course, and left the hall .My friends who were waiting for me asked 'hey, what took you so long?,hurry up'.I didnot tell them.

Dear Meera,

Iam sure you are talking of Jehangir Art Gallery. The place where I discussed his proposal to me. He took me ther to see how art loving can I be? Ask me the spelling of Art? I don't know. Are you an Art Lover? kanaka

dear meera,

that was hilarious...me too cannot understand art sadly and we had gone to europe for our honeymoon...at paris the louvre was an absolute waste for me as i cud not recognise anything except mona lisa thank god...guess dh was quite dissapointed with me not that he is very knowledgeable in that area but atleast better than me...good post

Mindi

Originally Posted by kanaka

Dear Meera,

Iam sure you are talking of Jehangir Art Gallery. The place where I discussed his proposal to me. He took me ther to see how art loving can I be? Ask me the spelling of Art? I don't know. Are you an Art Lover? kanaka

Dear Kanaka,

I am talking of the same art gallery. I too don't know much about art but I know the spelling ,it is simple isn't it hahaha. If you read my post , carefully,that's what I have I have written about here.

Originally Posted by Mindian

dear meera,

that was hilarious...me too cannot understand art sadly and we had gone to europe for our honeymoon...at paris the louvre was an absolute waste for me as i cud not recognise anything except mona lisa thank god...guess dh was quite dissapointed with me not that he is very knowledgeable in that area but atleast better than me...good post

Mindi

dear mindi,

thanks for your comments.me too in the same boat... have only read about Louvre, great that you have been there. Mona Lisa is what, I too can understand and my knowledge of art too ends there....

cheers

meera

Meera,
Let me join you friends...what they say as modern art...is for me...ok, ok., as I am not able to understand whatelse I can do...adhukkum yenakkum kaadha dhooram...

sriniketan

Sriniketan,

welcome to join in...I had really liked some beautiful paintings. I visited again many times ennaku avvalavu dooram illai....it was near my workplace.But I stopped trying to understand them as it would be like your

meera

Dear friends,

This was just a funny experience how people who don't understand art pretend to understand it. Could be they don't wish to hurt the sentiment of the artist.

But that piece of artwork was something I couldnot understand and so I didnot appreciate it. Art is something I can understand, appreciate and if I want I can display in my home. Some good scenery,landscape or some good play with colours,portraits,ethnic paintings etc.


By saying we understand it,even though we don't , we will be encouraging such artists to create more scary portraits like the ones which I saw.won't we ?


regards

meera