Bengaluru: As Sunday drew to a close, performance artist Dimple B. Shah positioned herself at the entrance to Venkatappa Art Gallery, seated in a hand-woven basket and wrapped with coils of rope. She sat in silence for about ten minutes and left as quietly as she had come.
“I wanted to represent every young artist who finishes college and dreams of having a show. Venkatappa Art Gallery is the only place to which they can come," she said later, in an aside. "The coils of rope wound around me stood for upcoming artists whose talent needs to be unwrapped. All of us artists in Bengaluru have been here at some point. That's why the gallery is so special to us."
Dimple was among over 400 people who turned up at the gallery on Sunday to show their support for the artist community's protest against its privatisation. An MoU signed between the Tourism Ministry and Abhishek Poddar, an art collector and owner at Tasveer, has had artists across Bengaluru up in arms against the move, saying that the space can, on no account, be handed over to any private party.
Two weeks ago, they received a copy of the MoU from Tourism Minister R.V. Deshpande – this was read out on Sunday afternoon, after which the artists present expressed their concerns about what it contains. The artist community came together for a day marked both by protest and the celebration of a space that has over the years become a cultural icon for Bengaluru. "We formed the Venkatappa Art Gallery Forum back in February, when we first heard about the MoU being signed,” said Sheela Gowda, a prominent artist and a member of the forum. “The MoU was given to us last week, but that's not the point. We're not open to negotiation as far as the privatisation of the space is concerned. We will simply not stand for it.”
The fate of the collections that have been bequeathed to the museum – those of Venkatappa and K.K. Hebbar – by their families, is a cause for concern, said the artists. “The government doesn't own the collections, how can it give them away to a private party,” asked artist P.S. Kumar. “A private collector is not done,” said Gowda. “He will definitely bring capable people onto his advisory committee, but at the end of the day, they will be executing the vision of one person.” The gallery has become an “icon of democracy”, said theatre artist Kirtana Kumar, who also arrived to show her support. “A lot is being said about how the place is in bad shape, but it is a space that's open to everybody. We have enough wine and cheese galleries in Bengaluru already, why does the government want to take away this, too?”
Why weren’t artists included in decision-making process?
Karnataka has the highest number of art schools in any state in India, starting with the Kala Mandir, which was founded back in 1918, a year before Tagore's Shantiniketan. “All the art schools in the state have been founded by artists and continue to be run by them,” said art historian Anil Kumar. “VAG is also a space for rural artists who come to the city to make a name for themselves. If it is privatised, then only those who are connected to gallery owners, curators and artist residencies will be able to show their work.” Artists in Karnataka have a history of creating institutions for themselves, he explained. “Schools and festivals set up over the last 100 years continue to thrive because artists are actively involved with them. Still, nobody from the community was consulted. Even S.G. Vasudev, who is involved with the KTVG, didn't know the details. Artists set up VAG, now they have to be invited to show there. It's like having your home snatched away from you and then being invited back there as a guest.”
