Looking forward - 2018: In culture, it's all about abstraction, says Ashok Vajpeyi

Three three trends in the visual arts continuing with increased vigour in the new year. Firstly, the tendency to innovate and use new material for art-making and site specific art practices. Secondly, becoming consciously and deliberately part of the global scene. The ambition to find a place on the global map seems to be firing the passion of many. Third would be the comparatively less noticed tendency towards abstraction.

To my mind, there is, at present, a kind of exhaustion with the narrative. There are two reasons for this. One, the narrative attracts attention and creates a political reaction that can lead to the destruction of the work itself. Two, although our own narrative, tradition has a lot of playfulness. We played with Gods, with figures, with stories, with legends — the scope for playing is becoming less under the present dispensation. Abstraction is the way out,I think.

Also, more and more theme-based shows seem to be coming up, along with retrospectives and large shows of solo artists. And while these were normally done by public institutions, they are increasingly being done now by private ones, for instance, the KNMA, and the Piramal Museum of Art. While sadly critical art writing today is not commensurate with art practice, art books have become the flavour of the day, and more and more art books are coming out. They are a mixed bag, but what is encouraging is that there is a welcome approach to archiving contemporary art, both in terms of image printing and also in terms of ideas and viewpoints.

In the performing arts, especially in the sphere of classical music, the age of the greats seem to be drawing to a close with the passing of Kishori Amonkar and Girija Devi recently. Among the younger musicians, instrumentalists are no longer as good as they used to be, but young vocalists are coming up in a big way. While hope lies with the vocal, the instrumental is more popular. There is an interesting trend, among some of the talented younger musicians, to return to the domain of their original gharana after having the opportunities and facilities to learn from, and mix up many gharanas.

In classical dance, the age of the greats has passed a long time ago. The two, contrasting trends — preserving the purity of the classical and experimenting and innovating, answering the call of the contemporary — have both not achieved much.

Ashok Vajpeyi is a Sahitya Akademi award winning poet and former chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi. He is also the managing trustee of the Raza Foundation, set up by Indian Modern artist SH Raza.