Hearts for art’s sake

The pandemic has deeply affected the art market, but with some good souls coming forward to help, hope floats.

Whenever there is a socially relevant cause or a natural disaster such as an earthquake, flood, or rehabilitation of victims, artists are one of the first in the community to participate in efforts to raise funds. Unfortunately, many of these artists are now struggling themselves to make ends meet. The pandemic has deeply affected the art market and during these difficult times, one finds there are just a handful of initiatives that are supporting artists and their practice in various ways.

One such initiative, ‘Punashchetana’ by the Shenoy Art Foundation, aims to ‘instill creative resurgence’. The Foundation was established by Gurudas and Amita Shenoy in memory of the late artist, G S Shenoy, renowned for his contribution to the field of visual art in Karnataka. The Foundation has been active for over a decade now, supporting young artists of the state with annual awards and an honorarium as well as by extending a helping hand in organising an exhibition of their works.

This year, keeping in mind the state of the art market, the Foundation decided to support all its previous awardees and later included five new artists as well, making it a total of 16 artists, providing them with an honorarium to aid the purchase of art materials.

The works created by these artists during this period will be later displayed through an online exhibition. Pradeep Kumar D M, Sanjeeva Rao Guthi, Srinivasa Reddy, Aishwaryan K, Mohan Kumar T, Manjunath Wali and Lokesh B H are some of the artists who will benefit from this programme.

‘In isolation’

The other notable initiative is an online exhibition, ‘In Isolation’, by Arnawaz Vasudev Charities, which was set up in 1989 by senior artist S G Vasudev in memory of his late artist wife Arnawaz, to provide financial assistance to deserving young artists. This show has been conceived as a concerted effort to showcase works produced during the pandemic by all awardees, as a source of inspiration, reflection and creative visual content for the audience.

With this in mind, AV Charities reached out to 150 artists who have received financial assistance from them in the past. The exhibition has been put up on Facebook and Instagram with 60 artists having responded so far.

The organisers hope to continue adding works from other artists as the idea catches on. Ravikumar Kashi, Bhavani G S and Urmila Venugopal are some of the earlier awardees who received support in their initial days and which they admit helped them immensely in sustaining their art practice.

Efforts such as these go a long way in nurturing young talent, in providing forums for display and in supporting artists in general.

At this juncture, when many artists and other members of the art community find themselves at the crossroads, additional support is imperative, especially from the Government, which can make a huge difference in the current art scene.

The author is a Bangalore-based art consultant, curator and writer. She blogs at Art Scene India and can be reached on [e-mail]

Dab Hand is your fortnightly art world low-down. It will tell you all about what fresh ideas are out there, what to collect and what to admire from afar. And, of course, what not to.