Why is Chandigarh not culturally alive?
Balvinder

City Beautiful finds few patrons of art. — Painting by the writer

ASK any local artist about the City Beautiful’s art scene, and this is the answer you are most likely to get: Chandigarh has yet not developed fully as an active cultural hub of the region".

Why so? Particularly when the city today has a number of rich people, whose material worth can well be gauged without peeping into their garishly stuffed drawing rooms. Just look at their dreadfully designed heavy iron gates outside their big bungalows!

One look at the coverage of cultural events that the print media provides these days, and you know that the local art scene appears to be bubbling with endless art activities.

The art scene of this capital of two adjoining states is, if not dismal, not worth comparing with other culturally alive cities.

Mired between the local cultural moors and the imposing western architectural influences, the city, sadly enough, could not come up with its own artistic identity even after more than half a century of its existence.

Mehar Mittal, a popular Punjabi film comedian, once rightly remarked that the absence of serious Punjabi films is due to the Punjabi language’s close proximity to Hindi language. The same perhaps is true about art of this region. The city’s proximity to Delhi, a national cultural hub, which is only a few hours’ drive from here, has affected its cultural growth considerably. Just like the fact that the success of a Punjabi writer is considered only when the writer is reviewed not by the vernacular press alone but also by the "English" newspapers, an artist’s success is measured not from the locally held shows but from those that are held in Delhi.

No wonder no serious local painter likes to stay in this commercially and culturally dull region. They prefer to move to Delhi to try their luck.

The few mediocre but clever artists, like me, who know their creative limitations, remain here and exploit the sullen situation to their best possible advantage. These artists can well be termed as camp-artists, as they are seen painting only during art camps and workshops that keep happening in the city at regular intervals. The survival of the otherwise defunct local art akademis (there are two in Chandigarh) depends upon this alone.

Some time ago I went to see an art exhibition at Punjab Kala Bhavan on the last day. The chitrakar however, had left the gallery after folding his show even before the lunch break. Obviously he had left after getting both the press coverage and the Akademi honour, as sale and visitors continue to be a rarity.

The Chandigarh College of Art, which is an offshoot of the Lahore’s majestic Mayo School of Art, has been striving hard, since its inception here in 1962, to bring about artistic consciousness among the residents of the city. The college has been contributing positively, professionally and significantly, and that too despite the start of a number of worthless academic art courses at the post-graduate level. Thankfully, unlike in UP, the number of PhD artists has not swelled in this region!

There is still a ray of hope, for the city’s art scene has yet not been devoured by the commercial onslaught. Remember, the Rock Garden is not the produce of commercialism. It is a pure pursuit of an innocent intellectual eruption. Thus it stands out majestically.

There exists, to our big advantage, a vast artistic vacuum. Just grab the opportunity, the time starts now.