‘Indian contemporary art continues to be influenced by the West’

Artist S.G. Vasudev has said that Indian contemporary art is yet to gain its foothold and imbibe Indian ethos and culture in it.

It continues to be highly influenced by western art, mainly due to the effects of the British education system, he said.

During his interaction with the students of fine arts at the Ideal Fine Arts Society in Kalaburagi on Monday, Mr. Vasudev said that all forms of Indian contemporary art, whether it was abstract, portrait, sculpture, wall painting, miniature, folk and tribal art forms, continued to be influenced by western art.

However, the Indian modern art painting style changed depending on the history, culture and tradition of that particular area.

To a question from the students, Mr. Vasudev said except for Shantiniketan in New Delhi, no other institution in India follows Indian modern art and contemporary art in its original form without any outside influence.

Students should study various art forms to enable them to transfer this through their artistic skills on the canvas, he said.

‘Be inquisitive’

He said that studying the paintings of various forms in art gallery would also help in gaining visual experience and the students should be inquisitive to know the theme of the painting to understand it better.

The students should, through their traditional painting methods, bring alive the sculptures of Badami, Belur, Halebidu, he said. This would help them to fine tune their skills in contemporary arts, he added.

Students should study various art forms, says S.G. Vasudev