Art critic, poet and writer Vinod Bhardwaj has been privy to the workings of the art world for a very long time. He started to get familiar with the world and its inhabitants in 1974. Having observed it for so long, it was natural for the journalist to learn about its various facets — both pleasant and unpleasant. In “Seppuku; The Other Side of Art Mafia” (HarperCollins), he lays bare the world in a juicy narrative for the reader.
Written originally in Hindi, the novel was first released at the Jaipur Art Summit in 2013 and now translated by Brij Sharma in English, it will be launched this Friday at Dhoomimal Art Gallery alongside “City Of Women”, an exhibition of painting, drawings and some rare archival material of F.N. Souza culled from the collection of the gallery. The show has been curated by Vinod Bhardwaj and Brij Sharma.
Simply put, it is a story of the art world as witnessed and experienced by the protagonist – Pratap Narayan Rastogi, a painter from the small town of Gorakhpur. “See if you are from Baroda, J.J.School of Art, Delhi College of Art, it’s different but if you study art in a small town and come to practise in a big city, the whole experience is very different. His surrealistic adventures make the story,” says Bhardwaj, who has also made art films on the likes of Himmat Shah and other artists. The story kicks off with Pratap Narayan Rastogi artist slipping into coma. His close friend Baldev Sharma, who is not as successful as Pratap, visits him in the hospital and recalls the journey. The story is shaped by his recollections of Pratap Narayan Rastogi’s entry into the art world, his encounters and his progression. Bhardwaj was inspired to write when a similar incident took place in real life with a senior artist slipping into coma in 2005. “Of course the incident inspired me but it is not based on just one artist,” says Bhardwaj.
Through the recollections of Baldev, Bhardwaj attempt to deal with different facets of the art world— art critics, manipulation by auction houses, art galleries, gate crashers and the Indian art boom of 2007. “The latter inspired me to have a title like “Seppuku” which is also called ‘Hara-kiri – a form of suicide practiced by Samurais. Certain bad decisions taken by corporates also amount to corporate seppuku and the artificial art boom was that,” says the writer, who also discusses underpaid assistants employed by artists, page three culture of art. “A young artist asked me if painting such a negative picture of the art world would discourage young talent and I said no because a genuine artist who is focused on his art and nothing else wouldn’t be bothered.”
There are a lot of real life incidents cleverly fictionalized by the author to make his book engaging and relatable. “I have done it in a way that it won’t offend people but I had to include all of those because they were imperative to the larger story like the death of a renowned art critic whose funeral was attended by just four people, the artist — a creation of Page 3 — who died in penury and anonymity.
Bhardwaj, who in his career spanning 41 years has interviewed the likes of F.N. Souza and Tyeb Mehta, has also woven their quotes in the story. “I have quoted Tyeb in the context of underpaid assistants where he is saying that we have taken all the wrong things from the West. I once interviewed Souza and I asked him “Do you know Hindi and he replied, ‘I know enough Hindi to go to G.B.Road.’ These are published interviews so everything is on the record.”
