Art has always been a soothing factor in times of world crises. During the Spanish flu, we have seen some significant works of contemporary masters of those times come out. Art is the best way to tell a story and has played a great role in reaching out to people during tough times.
The transformation of this global health crisis to a social crisis was not surprising but it is heartening to see the entire world come together and handling it with a level head. The covid-19 crisis is far from over but we are at least hoping that the worst has been done with. There is no denying that there have been some soul searching and serious takeaways from this pandemic and it has definitely given us all a chance to sit back and reflect on all the valuable things that we have missed out in life.
Paintings have always been socially distancing themselves. One can only see a painting from a social distance and not touch or feel it. Unfortunately, the extension of this concept to humans has been probably the toughest to deal with. No man is an island. We all have an inherent need to be touched and embraced.
“Business as usual” is another concept which has had a fundamental shake-up. Of course, what we all are trying is to keep the essence of what we do and change the way of doing it.
Well, I for one, am on social quarantine in my Los Angeles home where I am based right now. My scheduled trip to Bangalore was disrupted unexpectedly. I have been always working remotely in LA and so it didn’t take me time to adjust to this new schedule. However, the clamp on travel has been a huge brake on the wheels. On the upside, this has given a high quality family time with my husband, who is usually busy traveling the world, and our little Maltese poodle.
Like many other cultural institutions, Galerie De’Arts is also taking a stab at moving content online for the first time which will give people an opportunity to draw connections between art and the current pandemic that we are experiencing. I think it is the responsibility of art to be able to build perspectives and spread positivity in these extraordinary times.
We are presenting the works of six Bangalore-based artists who will also be talking about art during the covid-19 lockdown. This is the first edition of a series and we look forward to this new phase of art and life.
– By Deepa Subramanian, Founder & Creative Head, Galerie De’Arts, Bangalore.
