Unaware of the intricacies of structure and process of creative activity involved in artistic perception and practice, people say art cannot be learnt, cannot be taught and it is an innate talent - an expression of individual emotions, thoughts and ideas. Art is a discipline like any other which has its theories and technicalities, pros and cons absorbed from nature and distilled through the intellect. Hence, the study of art is the study of nature-is as abstract as mathematics and as concrete as physics.
Art is a visual language. Elements and principles, the basic grammar of this visual language, is like constructing a sentence out of words, paragraph out of sentences or writing a story with dialogues and descriptions. Similarly, a student of art needs to understand and make use of his/her knowledge in fabricating a visual composition, a story, or an idea. That's where the academics matter - to study the grammar and to implement appropriately. An art school nurtures a student intellectually and technically. It is not just any art school, it is the culture, the environment of the art school that matters which directly or indirectly supports a student in making him/herself an artist with an identity of self.
Content, form and the idea are an integral part of a work of art. Content is the story or the theme that an artist wants to convey-which might be familiar or unfamiliar to the viewer. Form is the visible feature of a work of art, the style which a student of art wants to build over the years. The idea is the invisible form of a work of art. It is the conceptual base for an artist to tell a story by creating a personal language.
A student of art in his/her under-graduate level would study the tools and techniques of the chosen area - painting, sculpture and printmaking. Introspection and execution is crucial at the post-graduate level. There is ample opportunity and freedom for a student to codify the thoughts into a form and build one's world with a self-identity. At the Master's level, a student needs to work on self-directed projects based on research and findings.
As usual, Shrishti Gallery along with Alliance Francaise and Goethe Zentrum has selected the best of young artists from Central University of Hyderabad, College of Art, JNAFAU, MS University, Baroda and from the Kala Bhavana, Shantiniketan. It is interesting to see four different cultures and four different schools of thoughts on one platform. This exhibition has a special significance for both the young artists who have emerged out of the schools and to the connoisseurs of art who are keen in keeping track of this new talent.