The Hindu Business Line : Puneiites taking to art, slowly

The city, which has thrown up artistes of repute like Buwa Shete, Ravi Shinde, Nitin Nangre and Ravi Paranjpe, has shown a less than lukewarm interest to art with the result that the burgeoning market for art in the country and artists themselves have given it the go by these last few days.

All that is expected to change over the next couple of years with a group of committed art lovers now taking up the cause of art and making a concerted effort to promote art appreciation in this city. Last week, the majestic Empress gardens here came alive with a four-day art fest, which saw several well-known artists, including Jehangir Sabavala and Vikram Kulkarni exhibiting their work and interacting with Puneiites who converged on the location in droves.

"My husband and I started a movement to familiarise Puneiites with the world of art, since this is one segment that this culturally rich city is a stranger to," says Ms Surabhi Nag, who runs the Nag Foundation, a non-profit organisation, which has been holding art exhibitions, seminars and lectures in the city since the late eighties.

"Puneiites just don't get to see the best works of the country's well-known artists and have to travel elsewhere to have a look at them," says Ms Nag. The foundation now regularly holds exhibitions of the works of artists, both local and outside, and Ms Nag says there is a vast change in the way citizens are looking at art now.

"My idea was to give a platform to the local artists and also provide art lovers a chance to meet and buy good works of art," she adds. The change in the way art is perceived in the city is due to several other reasons like the large disposable income of the city's young urban professionals, the recognition of art as an investment and also the fact that art is part of an aspirational lifestyle that people want for themselves.

Not surprisingly, a large bulk of the small community of art buyers in Pune are high net-worth builders who buy it for themselves and also to doll up the fancy lobbies of their up-scale properties. But art need not be confined to the charmed circle of wealthy people who discuss it over their cocktails, says art lover and former ad-woman, Ms Geetanjali Kirloskar, who has now made it her business to bring art to the mainstream. Ms Kirloskar, wife of industrialist Mr Vikram Kirloskar, is all set to hold a series of art events in the city, which will kick off with an ambitious show where 35 of the country's best known names, including Subhash Awchat, Lalita Lajmi, Brinda Miller, S. H. Raza, Sunil Padwal and Samir Monda, will participate.

The show, being held in collaboration with Mumbai's Tao Art gallery, will feature a workshop on art appreciation and trends in contemporary Indian art by auction house Christie's Chief Curator, Ms Mallika Sagar. "Art is a creative indulgence and an investment opportunity and Puneiites are currently being denied both of these," says Ms Kirloskar who has plans to make the Pune Art show a brand and a destination in the coming years.

"Currently, it is a vicious circle with the artists not coming here to exhibit, since there is no serious buying and this is because Puneiites are neither exposed to art nor do they get to see good art in their city for potential buying," she adds.

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