Revisiting Beauty

Is Beauty a ‘bad’ word in the age of cutting-edge, angst ridden art?
Why is it that a particular work of art is judged more acceptable and palatable
than another, when both works arguably toe the line of ‘prescribed’ notions of
beauty? What then leads to consensus on whether a work of art is too beautiful
or pretty to retain its subversive quality?
Moreover, can a work of art be deemed cutting-edge while retaining its aesthetic
quality and beauty?
‘Beauty’ is one of the central tenets of Aesthetics. While beauty itself may not
have changed, the lens of viewing it has. It is this swapping of lens that leads to
an interesting revisiting of Beauty.
Being a gallerist offers a certain vantage point from which one can observe two
constant, concurrent dichotomies at play, each feeding into, as well as feeding
off, the other. The first is that which exists between the viewpoint of the art critic
and the vocabulary of the artist. The second, is between the creation of art and
the dynamics of the art market.
This exhibition presents each artist’s unique sensibility and perspective, that may
serve to disarm entrenched biases against notions of beauty that uncomplicatedly
delights the heart and mind even as it restores to today’s artistic experience a
living, transformative and aesthetic component.
My grateful acknowledgement to Dr BN Goswamy for a straight from the heart
essay, lucidly put across. Beauty is so easily felt but is far more complex to
describe.
A special thank you to Gulam Mohd Sheikh and Nilima Sheikh, who as pedagogues
have inspired a generation of artists to create an individual vocabulary firmly
rooted in our rich past and to each of the participating artists who have taken this
enquiry at a deeper level.
As with any subjective inquiry, it is ultimately a point of view that sanctifies.