Man walking in front of Cinema board painting
“Everyone is an artist” (Joseph Beuys)
What is the relation between contemporary art and common man in Pakistan? Well sadly the answer would be “there is none”. The art in Pakistan has been created in a bubble and only few people can access and appreciate it. It didnt happen in a day, the evolution of it has taken years of training the generations of Artist who starting with their clothes to their work make a statement that they are different and better from the rest of the society and thus become “unapproachable”. So all the unapproachable people together form the “High culture” and “High Art” that promotes the aesthetics of certain class. Some artists and collectors here claim that art cannot come to a common man but the common man should come to it. They feel that there is a big gap as art has come a long way and common man must meet it in its present form.
VM art gallery Karachi Pakistan
Galleries which are few here have also not played their role of bridging this intellectual and aesthetic gap. They only promote certain aesthetics and artists and attract collectors and people from certain class. So the galleries act as the places for selling art rather as cultural centers accessible to everyone. They don’t hold events or workshops and sessions for the general public. One can argue that they need money to sustain and artists also have to eat but the prices of the artworks are ridiculously unaffordable, acquiring an artwork is still a distant dream for most of us. Surely they can come up with a more sustainable and successful model of a place that isn’t just a shop but also an educational and cultural place.
“Burning Shama” truck art
Lets look at the parallel discourse of art that caters to the aesthetic and issues of common people, this art makes the bigger visual culture of Pakistan which is not displayed in galleries and collected by collectors but is a collectively shared experience and not taught in some fancy art school but is transferred from one generation to the next, it evolves organically through the lives of people. And my blog is about such art and the artists.This blog is also an attempt to investigate why the higher art could not become popular in the general public? or is it even the collective ambition of artists and art community to popularize it among general public?There is some hope as in past few years there have been some brilliant examples of public art displays in Karachi.Through this blog I will look at the initiatives that try to break barriers between socio economic classes and bring art to the common people.
Initiative “I am Karachi” to replace hate graffiti with beautiful wall paintings
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