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ShareMumbai: With more and more artists/painters all over the world using the computer-aided software and the internet, the "old fashioned" hand painted drawings may soon become a rarity. Speaking to artists and art connoisseurs in the city, DNA came across a mixed bag of feelings. Some are quite comfortable with the introduction of software induced paintings, while others fume at it.
Gallery owner Ranjana Steinreucke, of Mirchandani and Steinreucke, Mumbai, says, "It's new, so people are still getting used to the idea. But internet-based art has begun to sell. The work is mostly in limited editions of three, like photography. So there won't be hundreds floating around."
The big cat of digital painting and virtually the painter who introduced this 'ism' in India, Baiju Parthan, says, "Today, in this historic present, we live our lives immersed in a reality that is informed by digital technology. The art produced within such an environment has no other option than to make use of the same medium to be true to the times we live in."
Anupa Mehta, owner and curator, The Loft, feels that at the end of the day, it is the artist's input that counts, even if it is computer-aided. "The computer is a tool for our times. For some artists it's an aid. Artists like Akbar Padamsee and Baiju Parthan have taken it to another level."
At the other end of the spectrum, noted painter Milburn Cherian fumes, "Frankly, once a person stops using his or her creative mind and gets hooked to using modern technology, original artwork dies. One can argue though, or live in denial, or justify it."
Brinda Chudasama Miller, another well-known painter, too does not use computer aided imagery in her art simply because it does not suit her style. She says, "Over the years, artists have been experimenting with new techniques and media. Using computers is not what I like to do, but it's probably because it doesn't suit my style of art. But that does not make computer art bad art. The problem arises when a print is passed off as a painting, accidentally or on purpose. Truth and scrutiny are sacrosanct here."
Nancy Adajania, curator, does not believe in a strict either/or here. "You can enjoy a painting, as well as a net-based work, each in its own way. In any case, both these mediums belong to two different economies and contexts of art-making. They are bound to make different kinds of aesthetics and political claims on the viewer."
But all agrees that digital art lacks in creation of texture. The smell of the paint, the feel of volume... These things will forever be the domain of traditional hand-painted art.
Summing up, Parthan says, "I think painting will always be there as the ultimate collectible. It is the one and only original produced by an artist, which cannot be replicated."
