At a time when art season is at its peak with a number of exhibitions and auctions — Delhi Art Gallery just had its auction and significant pieces of modern art will go under the hammer in a major auction by Saffronart on September 4 — Jan Sanskriti Manch (JSM) has initiated a multi-layered campaign to bring art to common people. One of the many objectives of the initiative led by artist Ashok Bhowmick is to get art out of the white cube and make it accessible to all. And what would have been a more opportune moment than Abedin’s birth centenary. Abedin, through his reflections on hunger and famine was a people’s artist. “Communist leader P.C. Joshi asked him to document and capture the Bengal famine of 1943 and he did so with earnestness. We wanted to remember his art of politics to food politics of today. Just some days back Dr. Binayak Sen has reportedly made a comment that more than 60 percent of workers in the tea gardens of Siliguri had a Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 18.5. The situation exists in Kalahandi and several other places which makes Abedin’s work relevant even today,” says Sanjay Joshi, National Executive Member of JSM.
So sometime last week the 29 year-old cultural organisation kicked off a pan-India campaign with a major event in Delhi that had a book release followed by a panel discussion, an art exhibition and a lecture-demonstration. The released book “Akaal ki Kala Aur Zainul Abedin” — a 110 page book written by Bhowmick dealing with Abedin’s art and philosophy published by Antika Publishers — is available on Flipkart.
This was the first in a series of exhibitions and lectures JSM will organise all over India. “We plan to take it to 100 centres we have identified like Udaipur, Nainital, Ramnagar, Nalanda, Azamgarh, Patna and Kolkata, etc. The choice has depended upon our network of friends and the condition that we will not take any sponsorships. That has always been a major concern for all our events. For instance, our ‘Cinema of resistance’ campaign. We plan to do it at art colleges, educational centres to have maximum impact,” adds Joshi.
The material to be showcased at these places may also vary. “At places where we feel we can’t exhibit his works, we will show a 20 minute documentary we are planning to do. The next year happens to be artist Chittaprosad Bhattacharya’s birth centenary year who also voiced similar concerns so we will merge the two and make it a bigger canvas.”
