Sunday, December 04, 2005
de Young musuem
And so we went to see this new art gallery boasted by San Fran today. I came out with mixed feelings about the place.
The gallery strikes as an incredible effort to preserve and publish the contemporary and older art works of US and the world. It is hard to come away without appreciating the effort and care of the people who have worked to collect and cherish the paintings and other art work. It should be noted that most work is from outside the US (Africa, Oceania, Latin America), which actually is commendable on the part of US, but maybe represents only a fraction of the culture all these places have.
On the sad hand, to my Indian soul, it also seems like the depth conveyed by the US collections is exxagerated and hyped. I have witnessed deeper meanings and values in the handiwork,artwork,paintings found in a typical Rajasthani or Gujarati house. So many houses including mine still have those old copper and silver vessels and trunks used daily by our grandparents, which have richer engravings and brighter shines than those found in such museums under artificial light. Every house has its own story, its own generations worth of buried yet beautiful history, that is worth much more than a museum.
I walked out appreciative of the fact that US Govt and its people do provide the recognition such artwork deserves. At the same time I felt bad that we havn't done anything much in India towards this end for our civilization, that is 10 times as old as US.
This is a great time to initiate such an effort, especially since we still have some of those people around who have witnessed the pre-independence to post-independence transition of India. (And also because we have a lot of money flowing into the country these days.) If we don't do it, somebody else (read US) will, and then probably the whole of Indian art and architecture will get folded into a limited few shelves under neon lights...
The gallery strikes as an incredible effort to preserve and publish the contemporary and older art works of US and the world. It is hard to come away without appreciating the effort and care of the people who have worked to collect and cherish the paintings and other art work. It should be noted that most work is from outside the US (Africa, Oceania, Latin America), which actually is commendable on the part of US, but maybe represents only a fraction of the culture all these places have.
On the sad hand, to my Indian soul, it also seems like the depth conveyed by the US collections is exxagerated and hyped. I have witnessed deeper meanings and values in the handiwork,artwork,paintings found in a typical Rajasthani or Gujarati house. So many houses including mine still have those old copper and silver vessels and trunks used daily by our grandparents, which have richer engravings and brighter shines than those found in such museums under artificial light. Every house has its own story, its own generations worth of buried yet beautiful history, that is worth much more than a museum.
I walked out appreciative of the fact that US Govt and its people do provide the recognition such artwork deserves. At the same time I felt bad that we havn't done anything much in India towards this end for our civilization, that is 10 times as old as US.
This is a great time to initiate such an effort, especially since we still have some of those people around who have witnessed the pre-independence to post-independence transition of India. (And also because we have a lot of money flowing into the country these days.) If we don't do it, somebody else (read US) will, and then probably the whole of Indian art and architecture will get folded into a limited few shelves under neon lights...
