Showing posts with label Krishen Khanna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Krishen Khanna. Show all posts

13 September 2010

Krishen Khanna



1. Where and how would you display your work in an ideal situation?
I would like to show my work when I think there is something worthwhile to show, but if the work is too private, then I don't think I would like to show it at all. There is an impersonal elements in art - ie. that which is given is also capable of being shared. There is an objective element, which correlates, maybe on many levels. I have had innumerable shows here in India, in Europe and the USA, and I felt marvelous when people whom I did not know saw and understood what I had tried to say.

2. If expository writing is good at elucidating and proving a point and
descriptive geometry gives us the tools by which to map objects in space
in relation to one another, what kind of an apparatus does art afford us?
What does art do best?
I am not sure that analogies help. Art has the capacity of drawing the artist right out. One can become oblivious to the effects one's own art have, and as we call it, one might transcend oneself and strike a note quite outside of one's own limited experience. One may thus be quite surprised at what came out of the work. Discoveries can be made, even small ones, which enter the experience of art.

3. What can you expect from your audience/fans/viewing public? What would you
like them to know about your work?
There are different levels of understanding and all are valid. A spectator's understanding is conditioned by his experience, which can, of course, grow until it surpasses his experience. This applies as much to poetry and music. Therefore, the spectator is happy even if there was a glimmer of a small meeting place in the experience of the work. It is rare that there is a total comprehension.

4. Marcel Duchamp said - "Enough with retinal art!" What is your reaction as an artist to this statement?
Duchamp, great as he is, and interesting as he is, still belongs to a category of artists and thinkers who narrow down the art experience to the detriment of seeing and experiencing the whole. He may have been questionably annoyed at the emphasis on the visual element. I would then move on to another resolute element. Today everyone is shouting for the idea as the main mover. I am sure this will wear out. Ideas are always important, but people have forgotten the many other factors, which are equally important. We can learn with discretion, but we should not confuse it with the whole experience.

5. Do you think that there is still room for art movements in today's
pluralistic climate?
Art movements are specific - generally against the values held by the previous generation. So, a belief comes to be established that the new truth is the only truth. There is nothing absolute; there is no progression in art.

6. What is one question you wished we had asked you about your art? Please
feel free to answer it.
I haven't given this thought! Maybe at the very end of discussions I would want a more resilient attitude, which would even take into account that which is not so good. There is always a long way to go and why should anyone be denying of even a poor start.