My reflection on life and it's relation with this world; the joy, the pain, the mystery and the comicality.
"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be 'happy'. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter and to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."
- Leo C. Rosten
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Genius
My tribute to Einstein and Yousuf Karsh. I don't know whether my sketch is good enough. It took me three full hours. I hope it pays.
Shubhanjan Da, Altough I haven't seen much of your sketches but by the sheer look of this I can say that its one of your masterpieces.It may have taken you three hours,truly speaking I would have taken three centuries to achieve this feet, needless to say the number of pages and the quantity of lead I would have wasted in the process.I salute you. I feel very excited and I have decided to use this sketch in my blog. Just to inform you Albert Einstein is among the very few personalities whom I follow very closely.You have made my day. A country like ours,where artists die of hunger, is not the place for you.I was going to suggest you that why dont you unite your vocation and avocation by taking up painting as your trade.But then I thought otherwise. In a country like India you would at the most get to design posters and banners and I am sure that would not satisfy your appetite. Finally, I wish you good luck and hope you continue your excellent work and allow us to enjoy them in your blog. Partha
Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting on this sketch of mine. I took a lot of patience and concentration to sketch this one and the one on Antarmahal. I sketched both the pictures on the same day.
This is actually a sketch of the famous portrait of Einstein taken by the legendary photographer Yousuf Karsh.
I am glad that you are sensitive enough to realise that art has very little place in the hearts of an overwhelming majority of people in India. Ask any Bengali mother if she wants her son or daughter to become the next Raghu Rai or Elliott Erwitt. Leave alone the dream of seeing their sons and daughters reach to the level, they haven't even heard these names. To them, being an MBA or an IIT pass-out is the highest goal that a person can have. In such a society, it is difficult to make a mark in the world of fine arts.
But is it not that many have indeed made names in this field?
The key to success in this field, like in many other fields, lies in 'whom you know'.
I believe a student of M.F.Hussain has a very good platform for launching his works. And since he is a student of M.F.Hussain, any half-educated rich businessman will buy his paintings for the sake of enlivening his status. M.F.Hussain's paintings will be bought by millionaires for the same reason. And the problem with such reputation is that anything - even if it is a couple of colours thrown and rubbed on a canvas - is sold at high price; prices as high as ten lakhs per picture. Where as you will find artists sitting on the grounds of the book-fair with their works and people hardly noticing them. This is a tragedy. But I fail to understand the reason why this has happened.
One reason is the advent of photography, which totally wiped out the significance of painting in portraying the world and its people. What is practised widely today is abstract art. But personally speaking, I do not like abstract works of art. Almost any work is displayed these days in the name of abstract photography. I remember an abstract picture with blue background and a red triangle in the foreground. That was the most costly picture in that exhibition. I simple did not understand why? In face of such absurdity, a portrait of Einstein, like the one I have made, will lie discarded in the dust-bin.
But I have no repentance. I do not sketch to sell. I sketch because I fell happy while sketching. That is all I am concerned with. To make millions by taking pictures, or by sculpting, or by painting, one has to be a 'genius', and with good 'contacts'.
2 comments:
Shubhanjan Da,
Altough I haven't seen much of your sketches but by the sheer look of this I can say that its one of your masterpieces.It may have taken you three hours,truly speaking I would have taken three centuries to achieve this feet, needless to say the number of pages and the quantity of lead I would have wasted in the process.I salute you. I feel very excited and I have decided to use this sketch in my blog.
Just to inform you Albert Einstein is among the very few personalities whom I follow very closely.You have made my day.
A country like ours,where artists die of hunger, is not the place for you.I was going to suggest you that why dont you unite your vocation and avocation by taking up painting as your trade.But then I thought otherwise. In a country like India you would at the most get to design posters and banners and I am sure that would not satisfy your appetite.
Finally, I wish you good luck and hope you continue your excellent work and allow us to enjoy them in your blog.
Partha
Dear Partha,
Thank you for visiting my blog and commenting on this sketch of mine. I took a lot of patience and concentration to sketch this one and the one on Antarmahal. I sketched both the pictures on the same day.
This is actually a sketch of the famous portrait of Einstein taken by the legendary photographer Yousuf Karsh.
I am glad that you are sensitive enough to realise that art has very little place in the hearts of an overwhelming majority of people in India. Ask any Bengali mother if she wants her son or daughter to become the next Raghu Rai or Elliott Erwitt. Leave alone the dream of seeing their sons and daughters reach to the level, they haven't even heard these names. To them, being an MBA or an IIT pass-out is the highest goal that a person can have. In such a society, it is difficult to make a mark in the world of fine arts.
But is it not that many have indeed made names in this field?
The key to success in this field, like in many other fields, lies in 'whom you know'.
I believe a student of M.F.Hussain has a very good platform for launching his works. And since he is a student of M.F.Hussain, any half-educated rich businessman will buy his paintings for the sake of enlivening his status. M.F.Hussain's paintings will be bought by millionaires for the same reason. And the problem with such reputation is that anything - even if it is a couple of colours thrown and rubbed on a canvas - is sold at high price; prices as high as ten lakhs per picture. Where as you will find artists sitting on the grounds of the book-fair with their works and people hardly noticing them. This is a tragedy. But I fail to understand the reason why this has happened.
One reason is the advent of photography, which totally wiped out the significance of painting in portraying the world and its people. What is practised widely today is abstract art. But personally speaking, I do not like abstract works of art. Almost any work is displayed these days in the name of abstract photography. I remember an abstract picture with blue background and a red triangle in the foreground. That was the most costly picture in that exhibition. I simple did not understand why? In face of such absurdity, a portrait of Einstein, like the one I have made, will lie discarded in the dust-bin.
But I have no repentance. I do not sketch to sell. I sketch because I fell happy while sketching. That is all I am concerned with. To make millions by taking pictures, or by sculpting, or by painting, one has to be a 'genius', and with good 'contacts'.
Regards,
Subhanjan.
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