Interview with Ved Nayar [ved] on Whohub

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What do you do? How do you define yourself as an artist?

I paint, I sculpt, I make installations and I write about my creativity and my concerns. My art is my personal creative visual expression, with a concern creeping in.

What is your message?

Live your life around your cultural identity. Imbibe your local, regional and global consciousness in your creative visual expression.

Your biography in four lines.

I was born in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad- Pakistan) on May17, 1933. I lived in jungle. The road was two kilometers from my house, from where the world started, I thought, in my childhood. I experienced the partition of my country. I completed my genaral education (B.A) from St. Stephen's college, Delhi. I completed my Art education from College of Art, Delhi. I am a free- lance artist.

Do you upload your work to the web? If so, where could we see it?

How is an idea born? For you, what is inspiration?

' I am content, choosing to walk, all alone in darkness,
locating, building and carving my own path to walk on,
towards the universe of a floating volume of intense darkness,
hiding sparkles of light.

Sometimes, a sparkle of light comes out of that universe of floating darkness,
engulfs me and then leaves me rejuvenated,
to continue locating, building and carving my path, to walk on it,
in darkness towards the universe of floating volume of intense blackness,
hiding sparkles of light.

What role does technology play in your creative process?

I am a contemporary Indian artist. I make use of any medium or technology which helps me to achieve my creative visual expression, the way I conceived and visualised it.

Art, to me, is a creative visual expression.

When do you get your best ideas?

I don't know. When an idea becomes a compulsion, I express it.

How do you evaluate whether an idea is good or not?

I don't evaluate my ideas. I live life. When an idea becomes compulsion, I express it. Let the history judge it. Accept it or discard it.

Three creative ideas that you would have liked to have created?

I don't want to base my creativity on somebody else's creative ideas.

When and how did you begin to see yourself as an artist?

My art is my personal creative visual expression, with a concern creeping in.

I don't remember any signs, during my childhood, which could have definitely predicted my becoming a painter-sculptor. I was the youngest child in the family. I was a lonely child who had adjusted to aloofness, enjoying it and hating it alternately. Living in a house which was amidst a jungle (forest), about two kilometer from the road from where, I thought, the 'World' started. From the house, a pagdandi (pathway) led me through the jungle to the World and from the World to my house.

My first relationship, in my life, outside my house, began with this jungle. I took the jungle in me through the window and from the terrace of my house. It tempted me and whenever I came out of my house, it engulfed me, as if to take the responsibility to prepare me to face the world. The jungle was never consistent in its behavior towards me—it changed its moods during the day and the behavior when seasons changed. The jungle, sometimes let me feel its love, care and indulgence. It provided me the cover of cool shade when I walked through it, returning from school in the hot summer afternoon— allowed me to explore it, let me climb the trees, pick flowers, listen to the conversations and the music of the birds. Sometimes the jungle taunted me, even scared me, — let a snake pass in front of me. It lengthened the shadows of the trees, allowed the howling wind pass through it, when I had to cross it at night to reach my home— But always in the end, asked the full moon to peep through the branches of the trees, slowed down the wind,— made a flower drop on my way— and guide me home on the 'pagdandi' (pathway). Somewhere, sometime during this relationship with the jungle, I think, the desire to express was born in me. I had no medium at my command to express and the urge got buried somewhere.

Amidst my relationship with the jungle, the world began to change very quickly. The country was partitioned. We fled leaving the jungle behind. I saw a group of people killing one helpless person. I met people who had a compulsion for lying and who planned to harm their dear ones, friends and children, but were accepted as innocents. Urge to express came back and I took a conscious decision to express myself through the medium of painting and later in sculpture.

The journey of my expression through art has been similar to the journey of contemporary Indian art after Independence— of derivation, of introspection and of discovering ones own creative visual

Why do so many artists and creators have such volatile personalities?

It is not necessary for an artist to have a volatile personality.

Since recent past, our world, including art profession, has become very competitive, exposure and sale oriented. Volatility or pretentious volatility in the personality of the artist helps him to register his presence.

Do you consider yourself postmodern?

I am a cotemporary artist in a fast changing world. My art expression remains abreast with the time.

Sometimes, however, my mind takes a flight into the future. I begin to feel, about the tendencies emerging on the horizon, to alter and use the nature’s biological code by artists sometime in the future.

How should a work of art be evaluated?

Let the history evaluate a work of art.

When we try to evaluate a work of art, our associations, our prejudices, our group allegiences, our biases, our ignorances, our art gallery and auction house associations, our buyer references, public relation pressures, the price tags begin to influence our judgements.

Must an artist reinvent him/herself everyday?

An artist should live his life intensely, evolve his creativity continously and remain relevent to the time.

The artist is the representative of his time.

What do you think about public funding for the arts?

Public funding for art is essential.

But there should be a definite and rigid distinction between the public funding for the promotion of art and public funding for acquiring excellence in art, for National collection.

We can not go on living for bread and butter only.

Art is essential requirment of living.

Does it pain you to let go of a piece you have sold?

Yes

But the work of are should be available to all and to the history.

Is a work of art purchased, or is it better said, that it is the artist who is bought?

These days most of the time, artist is bought. Seldom the art.

In art, there is no guide. How do you know what the next step is?

I have to indulge in myself to continue or take the next step.

How do you feel about the fact that the pieces exhibited in contemporary art museums are often of artists already deceased?

The scene is gradually changing.

We may consider bifercating the collection of excellence in contemporary art. Works of living contemporary artists are housed in National Gallery of Modern (contemporary) Art. The works of excellence of already deceased contemporary artists are housed in National contemporary art museum. Keep the definations of living and deceased flexible. When a work of contemporary art gets qualified to shift from National gallery of Modern (contemporary) art to reach National contemporary art museum, it will be excellent beyond doubt and will be a national/ global treasure.

What role have the figures of art dealer, gallery owners, representatives, and intermediaries in general played in your career?

Negative.
An example:
'I was invited to participate in a group exhibition by an art gallery in Delhi. The curator of the group show came to my studio to see the 'Last Agression - 1994'- a drawing. He approved the work. The work was printed in the catalogue. In the morning of the day of the inauguration, 'The Last Agression-1994' was displayed in the gallery. Before the inauguration, the work was sent back to my studio'.
Now the work is accepted and sought after.

What types of jobs do you usually do?

I am a whole time free- lance artist.
I paint, I sculpt, I draw.
I think about my art and I write about my art.

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