basket and structure

The basket gets its form by simply interweaving cane strips which mutually support each other.

Art and Indian Schooling

Ive always associated abstraction with a childs thoughts.

"Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories

from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of

swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

In the book it said: 'Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After

that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for

digestion.'

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a

coloured pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One.

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing

frightened them.

But they answered: 'Frighten? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?'

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an

elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing:

I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They

always need to have things explained.

The grown-ups response this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa

constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to

geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up

what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the

failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never

understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and

forever explaining things to them"

The Little Prince, De Saint-Exupéry

Little Prince is my favourite book because it showcases exactly the same thought.

I think art should be encouraged from a young age. Most schools in India encourage ‘drawing’ and it is included in the syllabus. The problem does not lie there but the way it is taught in schools. In the west, the priority lies on developing the child’s creative thinking and expression. Even to the extent of taking his artwork seriously in some cases for psychological analysis.

Schools here still follow the mechanical approach which has probably not evolved since my parent’s school days.

Considering an ordinary case, the child of three would be asked to draw an apple. The ‘apple’ is usually the first lesson. This is probably because A stands for Apple as the first letter of the alphabet. Or the reason could be worse; like not being able to move on since the British rule because leaving aside all the local fruits, including the ‘Mango’, Indian kids are always taught the phoren ‘Apple’ first. An apple which is necessarily bright red with a small shoot on the top with exactly two leaves on each side. And the apple is always symmetrical.

The worst is yet to come. What distinguishes the ‘Great Artist’ from his peers would be his ability to colour inside the figure, correctly without allowing his crayon to move out of the line. Poor thing. And yes, crayons because hes not ‘allowed’ to use watercolors till hes ten years old.So the child believes he is an artist because he seems to be able to hold his hand steadier than his peers. Same lessons would be repeated for orange, banana, tea cup, dog and maybe rainbow. Well,obviously the rainbow is the easiest way to teach colour. It does not mean the child might have ever seen a rainbow in real life. He proceeds to the next class. The lessons get worse. The subject: Landscape drawing. But of course the best artist would be the one who draws a house with a sloping roof and a distinct round window on the gable wall. The background; two triangles representing hills and the bright orange sun (with or without eyes and a smile) setting exactly in the centre. The ‘Great Artist’ has completed the next level.

It may be an exaggeration but only slightly. Of course there are exceptions but we are not counting those. This is the typical way of teaching art in most urban schools in India. I’m restricting the word ‘art’ in the above paragraph to only painting, i.e. visual art because that is the first thing that is taught to a child in school.

But the point is that this kind of very rigid system has its repercussions in the same childs growth as an individual and his adult life. Compartmentalized thinking, structured and systematic thinking is essential in certain fields, but not all. In my opinion, it is the very reason we produce better engineers and doctors than artists. The result of this educational system is lack of analytical thinking. There are Indian artists who have broken this trend. but it would definitely help if creative thinking is encouraged since childhood.This would lead to better work in every field where creativity is predominant. Better writing, better films, better paintings........ sculptures, architecture,fashion, books, dramatics, poetry, music and dance.

Art is something that has to be incorporated in everyday life.