Empty halls of art

Hyderabad: They say, choose a job you love and you will never have to work a single day. Now imagine, finding what you love and then having to give it up for the sake of basic survival. This is what several artists in the city have been forced to do.

One of the closest witness to the glum scene of artists taking up other jobs for survival has been Dr Avani Rao Gandra, the curator of the Iconart Gallery, who also runs a residency — now empty. Although she is expecting a new batch after summer, the cause of worry for this artist and promoter is that several artists from her previous batch have given up practicing art full time.

“They are forced to give up full-time art practice and take up jobs in animation, Web services and advertising. A 9-to-5 job actually drains creativity  and the financial stress also plays on their art output,” she says. According to her, nearly 80 per cent of artists have turned into part-timers. “With degrees in fine art, their knowledge and skill is being underutilised, to say the least,” she adds.

Meanwhile, Srikanth Dhunde, a promising abstract artist, struggles with no money to buy even art supplies. “Financially, things have been really hard and it has reached a point that I can’t even afford art supplies,” he shares. To paint a series, it would cost an artist nearly '2 lakh in just raw materials.

Also, the experienced collectors have their own list for complaints. They are increasingly upset with the hype and artificial rise of prices in other markets and the lack of returns on investment. Jinson Joseph, who works as a teacher in Mumbai’s Singapore International School, says, “Of course, it is about survival. But then I ensure that the job doesn’t interfere with the art practise.”

And artist Sridhar has decided never to try his hand at a 9-to-5 job again. “It takes too much from you. So I rely on commissioned works mostly and take up only projects where I can exercise my own style a little bit.” Commissioned and freelance projects generally turn up once in three months and sometimes once in six months and give the artist only around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000.

In such an economy, artist couple Pavan and Shwetha has done what’s probably the bravest thing. They decided to quit their jobs  and practise art full time. “It is difficult to survive, but we are a middle-class family looking for happiness in art. An office is tough when you want to create serious art. And no, there is no guilt when we look at our children.”