June 20 RC #1

One of the criteria by which we judge the vitality of a style of
painting is its ability to renew itself — its responsiveness to the
changing nature and quality of experience, the degree of conceptual
and formal innovation that it exhibits. By this criterion, it would
appear that the practice of abstractionism has failed to engage
creatively with the radical change in human experience in recent
decades. It has, seemingly, been unwilling to re-invent itself in
relation to the systems of artistic expression and viewers'
expectations that have developed under the impact of the mass media.

The judgement that abstractionism has slipped into 'inter gear' is
gaining endorsement, not only among discerning viewers and
practitioners of other art forms, but also among abstract painters
themselves. Like their companions elsewhere in the world,
abstractionists in India are asking themselves an overwhelming
question today: Does abstractionism have a future? The major crisis
that abstractionists face is that of revitalising their picture
surface; few have improvised any solutions beyond the ones that were
exhausted by the 1970s. Like all revolutions, whether in policies or
in art, abstractionism must now confront its moment of truth: having
begun life as a new and radical pictorial approach to experience, it
has become an entrenched orthodoxy itself. Indeed, when viewed against
a historical situation in which a variety of subversive, interactive
and richly hybrid forms are available to the art practitioner,
abstractionism assumes the remote and defiant air of an aristocracy
that has outlived its age; trammelled by formulaic conventions yet
buttressed by a rhetoric of sacred mystery, it seems condemned to
being the last citadel of the self-regarding 'fine art' tradition, the
last hurrah of painting for painting's sake.

The situation is further complicated in India by the circumstances in
which an indigenous abstractionism came into prominence here during
the 1960s. From the beginning it was propelled by the dialectic
between two motives, one revolutionary and the other conservative — it
was inaugurated as an act of emancipation from the dogmas of the
nascent Indian nation state, when art was officially viewed as an
indulgence at worst, and at best, as an instrument for the celebration
of the republic's hopes and aspirations. Having rejected these dogmas,
the pioneering abstractionists also went on to reject the various
figurative styles associated with the Santiniketan circle and others.
In such a situation, abstractionism was a revolutionary move. It led
art towards the exploration of the subconscious mind, the spiritual
quest and the possible expansion of consciousness. Indian painting
entered into a phase of self-inquiry, a meditative inner space where
cosmic symbols and non-representational images ruled. Often, the
transition from figurative idioms to abstractionist ones took place
within the same artist.

At the same time, Indian abstractionists have rarely committed
themselves wholeheartedly to a nonrepresentational idiom. They have
been preoccupied with the fundamentally metaphysical project of
aspiring to the mystical-holy without altogether renouncing the
symbolic. This has been sustained by a hereditary reluctance to give
up the murti, the inviolable iconic form, which explains why
abstractionism is marked by the conservative tendency to operate with
images from the sacred repertoire of the past. Abstractionism thus
entered India as a double-edged device in a complex cultural
transaction. Ideologically, it served as an internationalist
legitimisation of the emerging revolutionary local trends. However, on
entry, it was conscripted to serve local artistic preoccupations — a
survey of indigenous abstractionism will show that its most obvious
points of affinity with European and American abstract art were with
the more mystically oriented of the major sources of abstractionist
philosophy and practice, for instance, the Kandinsky-Klee School.
There have been no takers for Malevich's Suprematism, which militantly
rejected both the artistic forms of the past and the world of
appearances, privileging the new-minted geometric symbol as an
autonomous sign of the desire for infinity.

Against this backdrop, we can identify three major abstractionist
idioms in Indian art. The first develops from a love of the earth, and
assumes the form of a celebration of the self's dissolution in the
cosmic panorama; the landscape is no longer a realistic transcription
of the scene, but is transformed into a visionary occasion for
contemplating the cycles of decay and regeneration. The second idiom
phrases its departures from symbolic and archetypal devices as
invitations to heightened planes of awareness. Abstractionism begins
with the establishment or dissolution of the motif, which can be drawn
from diverse sources, including the hieroglyphic tablet, the Sufi
meditation dance or the Tantric diagram. The third idiom is based on
the lyric play of forms guided by gesture or allied with formal
improvisations like the assemblage. Here, sometimes, the line dividing
abstract image from patterned design or quasi-random expressive
marking may blur. The flux of forms can also be regimented through the
policies of pure colour arrangements, vector-diagrammatic spaces and
gestural design.

In this genealogy, some pure lines of descent follow their logic to
the inevitable point of extinction, others engage in
cross-fertilization, and yet others undergo mutation to maintain their
energy. However, this genealogical survey demonstrates the wave at its
crests, those points where the metaphysical and the painterly have
been fused in images of abiding potency, ideas sensuously ordained
rather than fabricated programmatically to a concept. It is equally
possible to enumerate the troughs where the two principles do not come
together, thus arriving at a very different account. Uncharitable as
it may sound, the history of Indian abstractionism records a series of
attempts to avoid the risks of abstraction by resorting to an overt
and near-generic symbolism, which many Indian abstractionists embrace
when they find themselves bereft of the imaginative energy to
negotiate the union of metaphysics and painterliness.

Such symbolism falls into a dual trap: it succumbs to the pompous
vacuity of pure metaphysics when the burden of intention is passed off
as justification; or then it is desiccated by the arid formalism of
pure painterliness, with delight in the measure of chance or pattern
guiding the execution of a painting. The ensuing conflict of purpose
stalls the progress of abstractionism in an impasse. The remarkable
Indian abstractionists are precisely those who have overcome this and
addressed themselves to the basic elements of their art with a
decisive sense of independence from prior models. In their recent
work, we see the logic of Indian abstractionism pushed almost to the
furthest it can be taken. Beyond such artists stands a lost generation
of abstractionists whose work invokes a wistful, delicate beauty but
stops there.

Abstractionism is not a universal language; it is an art that points
up the loss of a shared language of signs in society. And yet, it
affirms the possibility of its recovery through the effort of
awareness. While its rheotoric has always emphasised a call for new
forms of attention, abstractionist practice has tended to fall into a
complacent pride in its own incomprehensibility; a complacency fatal
in an ethos where vibrant new idioms compete for the viewers'
attention. Indian abstractionists ought to really return to basics, to
reformulate and replenish their understanding of the nature of the
relationship between the painted image and the world around it. But
will they abandon their favourite conceptual habits and formal
conventions, if this becomes necessary?

9. Which one of the following is not stated by the author as a reason
for abstractionism losing its vitality?

a. Abstractionism has failed to reorient itself in the context of
changing human experience.
b. Abstractionism has not considered the developments in artistic
expression that have taken place in recent times.
c. Abstractionism has not followed the path taken by all revolutions,
whether in politics or art.
d. The impact of mass media on viewers' expectations has not been
assessed, and responded to, by abstractionism.

10. Which of the following, according to the author, is the role that
abstractionism plays in a society?

a. It provides an idiom that can be understood by most members in a society.
b. It highlights the absence of a shared language of meaningful
symbols which can be recreated through greater awareness.
c. It highlights the contradictory artistic trends of revolution and
conservatism that any society needs to move forward.
d. It helps abstractionists invoke the wistful, delicate beauty that
may exist in society.

11. According to the author, which one of the following characterises
the crisis faced by abstractionism?

a. Abstractionists appear to be unable to transcend the solutions
tried out earlier.
b. Abstractionism has allowed itself to be confined by set forms and practices.
c. Abstractionists have been unable to use the multiplicity of forms
now becoming available to an artist.
d. All of the above

12. According to the author, the introduction of abstractionism was
revolutionary because it

a. celebrated the hopes and aspirants of a newly independent nation.
b. provided a new direction to Indian art, towards self-inquiry and
non-representational images.
c. managed to obtain internationalist support for the abstractionist agenda.
d. was an emancipation from the dogmas of the nascent nation state.

13. Which one of the following is not part of the author's
characterization of the conservative trend in Indian abstractionism?

a. An exploration of the subconscious mind.
b. A lack of full commitment to non-representational symbols.
c. An adherence to the symbolic while aspiring to the mystical.
d. Usage of the images of gods or similar symbols.

14. Given the author's delineation of the three abstractionist idioms
in Indian art, the third idiom can be best distinguished from the
other two idioms through its

a. depiction of nature's cyclical renewal. b. use of
non-representational images.
c. emphasis on arrangement of forms. d. limited reliance on original models.

15. According to the author, the attraction of the Kandinsky-Klee
School for Indian abstractionists can be explained by which one of the
following?

a. The conservative tendency to aspire to the mystical without a
complete renunciation of the symbolic.
b. The discomfort of Indian abstractionists with Malevich's Suprematism.
c. The easy identification of obvious points of affinity with European
and American abstract art, of which the Kandinsky-Klee School is an
example.
d. The double-edged nature of abstractionism which enabled
identification with mystically-oriented schools.

16. Which one of the following, according to the author, is the most
important reason for the stalling of abstractionism's progress in an
impasse?

a. Some artists have followed their abstractionist logic to the point
of extinction.
b. Some artists have allowed chance or pattern to dominate the
execution of their paintings.
c. Many artists have avoided the trap of a near-generic and an open symbolism.
d. Many artists have found it difficult to fuse the twin principles of
the metaphysical and the painterly.