Bangalore's new cultural hot-spot

Kannada writer Chandrasekar Kambar released a new book on artist Yusuf Arakkal last weekend. Kambar is amongst the most important writers in Kannada, along with P Lankesh, Girish Karnad and UR Ananthamurthy. The book is the work of P Surendran, Dr RH Kulkarni, Nalini Malaviya and P Sudhakaran, all four of whom are very conversant with contemporary Indian art.

Besides, Arakkal was unveiling a stark new sculpture, permanently installed at the Sara Arakkal Gallery in Whitefield on the same day. You’d think that an event like this would be high on the intellectual scale. Far from it. Art is simple. It is fascinating. It can lift the soul, even if you do not speak its vocabulary. Try looking at the Mona Lisa for a start.

Art has always been a record of what societies have achieved, the landmarks they have created, the accomplishments they want recorded. Like cinema and literature, art is a record and reflection of our times. It captures the political, social, religious and cultural ideas of our times. It tells us stories. And the stories are in a visual language we all understand. Think of the Ajanta and Ellora caves capturing court scenes, domestic life, weaving them with the Jataka tales and the epic of Buddha.

Whitefield is lucky to have the permanent presence of an artist like Arakkal. One of his murals has been installed at Jagdish and Arundhati Raja’s newly-opened Jagriti Theatre barely two kilometres away. And while Arakkal’s work can be dark and brooding, there is nothing to suggest it does not exude light. In fact, he is amongst the rare artists whose work does not just capture society — it also leads it.

So it was fascinating to chat with the down-to-earth Arakkal who is as practical as they come. His charming story of powerful magazine editors who never returned his sketches — ostensibly taken to be reproduced in their publications — brought back memories of the great MF Husain. Many years ago, a friend who lived in the same building as MF Husain in Mumbai would invite the artist to play Pictionary.

The game is played between teams who try to identify words through sketches. Husain, always a sport and always game for some unadulterated fun, would sketch away — brilliantly — and his team would invariably win. At the end of an hour or two of Pictionary, Husain would meticulously collect all his tiny sketches and take them home. After all, he made a living from drawing and painting. How could he leave some of the currency of his living behind?

Husain, who is also an astute marketing mind, once did a painting in the office of a magazine editor (where this author worked) and left the painting behind saying, “I’ll come back 10 years from now and collect it. Until then, look after it.” Sure enough, he returned exactly 10 years later to take away his painting which had — for a decade — adorned the wall of the editor’s cabin, greeting prominent visitors from business and industry.

What Husain had done was remarkable: he has improved the per square inch value of the painting a hundred fold simply by ensuring that everyone who mattered in the city had actually seen it without having to visit an art gallery. Artists can teach us many worldly lessons in living and practicality — if we are just open minded enough to learn. Artists don’t just bring a point of view to what they see, they also provide a window to a world where making a living isn’t easy and is fraught with inexplicable human avarice.

Listening to Arakkal, one felt that soon all of Whitefield would be reflected in his work — and conversely, his work would be all over Whitefield. If only we are that lucky.  For the moment, you’ll need to visit the charming and captivating Sara Arakkal Gallery to view his work and that of several artists from all over the country routinely on exhibit here.

It is impossible to miss the fact that the gallery is close to a performing arts theatre like Jagriti and located bang opposite an elegant and imposing Balaji Temple in BEML layout. Some distance down the road is a new restaurant called Aurograce that reflects the spirit of Whitefield in its interiors and architecture, meticulously distancing itself from European and American trends (but the menu is international). Could Whitefield be the contemporary crucible of culture for Bangalore? Artists like Arakkal, Jagdish and Arundhatti Raja hold the key.