Making art accessible

THE BANE of Art has always been the fact that artists all over the world have eked out their livelihood and passion in utter penury. History is replete with instances of old masters who have starved to death in freezing garrets while their masterpieces gained immeasurably in value after their lifetime.

Art galleries, themselves mostly struggling, have also been hard put to devote wall-space for talented artists before they catch the fancy of the "discerning" artlover. The hypocrisy of the market is perhaps best embodied in Ken Follett's novel "The Modigliani Scandal" which exposes the fallacy of value in paintings. But the actual intrinsic value of paintings lie in the artist's concept, the brush playing divine tunes with colour and detail. Too often in India, time has ravaged the skills of homespun artists and artisans as they are passed on from generation to generation.

It is in this context that the Raasi Art Gallery in Adyar rises above the morass of crass commercialism. Nestling in a quiet by- lane (1, Anna Avenue, Bakthavatsalam Nagar) the gallery is housed in a stately dwelling. Many Tanjore and Mysore paintings hang on the walls of 1,500 square feet on the ground floor while the owner, K. Srinivasan and family reside on the first floor. Srinivasan is an engineer-MBA and has worked in industry for over twenty years before he set up the Raasi Art Gallery, 18 months ago. The difference in this gallery lies in the fact that Srinivasan buys all the paintings upfront from the artists, and market forces and transparency ensure that the artists get a fair price for their efforts. Raasi sells these paintings to the public at competitive prices and achieves standardisation of quality for customers.

Srinivasan says that Raasi (Rejuvenation of Ancient Art of South India) serves the art by researching the genesis of each art form and preserving the integrity of time-honoured processes even while institutionalising necessary changes in ingredients (the use of fevicol in bonding, for example).

So far, Raasi has concentrated on Tanjore and Mysore paintings and will soon get into Kalamkari.

Srinivasan and his wife Geetha wax eloquent on the style of paintings. Though Tanjore and Mysore paintings look similar, the differences are that Mysore paintings employ much thinner gold foil, more pastel colours and do not use semi-precious stones to embellish the painting. All the frames are made of teak wood while some Mysore paintings are executed on glass, on the reverse. The themes have always been based on gods and goddesses. Raasi has also commissioned some paintings on Guru Gobind and Shirdi Sai Baba in the Tanjore style.

Raasi is organising a Summer Art Festival from April 19 to May 6 and apart from paintings on display and sale, some papier-mache creations would also feature. The speciality of the papier-mache at Raasi is the startling resemblance they bear to bronzes. A visit to the gallery would prove educative as well as rewarding. The prices start from Rs. 250 and climb all the way upto Rs. 16,000.

M. SRINATH NARAYAN

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