A wine-and-cheese do, a guest list that boasts of the city's swish set of ‘thinking men and women' and before you know it, the paintings/sculptures/installations are sold. Curating an art exhibition is a far cry from this romantic notion. A few galleries seem to be learning this the hard way.
Over a period of time, when investments don't match the returns, a few galleries have been doing away with pre-requisites of curating an exhibition — ensuring that a painting is displayed with the title, name of the artist and the medium used. If you walk into one such exhibition and find yourself lost for direction, what would you do? Ask for help. If you're lucky, you'd find the gallery owner or the curator. But most often, you'd be met by a member of the staff who has no background in art. What ails some of our galleries?
Atiya Amjad of Daira Art Gallery says, “It's unprofessional to not mention the basic details of an art work. A curator has to ensure that visitors can access catalogues and get a better insight into the work of an artist.”
Art is a tricky line of work since there is no regulatory body. Even today, not many hire a professional curator. Forget galleries, even occasional art events don't take a professional approach. At a recent charity sale in the city, visitors were surprised to see a few paintings placed on the floor, propped up against a wall. Digging deeper, we learnt that the five-star hotel was averse to driving nails into the wall to mount the paintings. Fair enough. The organisers, racing against time to make arrangements for easels to mount these paintings, placed them against the walls.
Hyderabad burst into the art scene much later than other metros and has a long way to go. A few forerunners in the profession learnt by working with reputed artists and evolved over the years, while many others turned to art wanting to make quick money. Residential spaces were converted into galleries and paintings were sourced without homework. Lack of sales forced a few to down shutters while others grope in the dark.
Atiya remembers how artists like Suryaprakash and Alliance Francaise conducted workshops in the mid 90s enabling enthusiasts to have a better understanding of art. Drawing from her experience, she hosted workshops recently at Daira. “Workshops help people understand art. Not just a painting or sculpture, it helps you appreciate aesthetics better,” she says. Prshant Lahoti of Kalakriti Art Gallery feels the problem arises when one enters the field purely with a business perspective. “You cannot become a curator by merely displaying five paintings each of three artists. The onus is on the gallery to educate the audience to newer forms of art. A lot of effort and money goes into documenting art,” he explains.
Galleries that go all out to publicise an exhibition featuring works of well known artistes are known to give a step-motherly treatment to budding artists. The younger artists are left to fend for themselves to promote their works and at times, are asked to put up title cards at their own cost.
Curator Koeli Mukherjee feels the art scene will benefit by taking a professional approach. “Simple things help. You can hire someone to curate a show on per exhibition basis. Hyderabad has many young art students who are willing to help and they charge nominally. I have worked with students and found that they have fresh ideas and are eager to work,” she sums up.
