Describe Nek Chand’s achievement and contribution in the field of art as mentioned in
‘Landscape of the Soul’.
Answers
‘Outsider art’ refers to the art of those who have no right to be artists as they have received no formal training, yet show talent and artistic insight. Nek Chand has won worldwide recognition for his unique contribution to outside art. Using stone and recycled material he has created many sculptures at Rock Garden, Chandigarh. Nek Chand’s work is now recognized as India’s biggest contribution to outside art. ‘Raw Vision’, a U.K. based magazine, a pioneer in outsider art publication has featured Nek Chand and his Rock Garden sculpture ‘Women by the Waterfall’ on the title cover of its 50th issue (Spring 2005). His art has been acclaimed as ‘‘an outstanding testimony of the difference a single man can make when he lives his dream’’. The Swiss Commissioner for UNESCO has honored him by organizing a five month interactive show called. ‘Realm of Nek Chand’. In short, Nek Chand has taken outsider art to dizzying heights and richly deserves the world wide acclaim.
In this chapter, the writer contrasts two forms of art – Chinese art and European art by using two different stories. In China during the eighth century, the Tang emperor Xuanzong commissioned a painter Wu Daozi to decorate a wall in the palace. Upon seeing the wall painting, the Emperor started noticing the outer appearance of the painting but the painter drew his attention to a cave at the foot of the mountain. The painter told the Emperor that he would take him inside. The painter entered the cave and the entrance closed behind him. As soon as the painter clapped his hand, the painting on the wall was gone and so was the painter. In another story, a painter wouldn’t draw an eye of a dragon as he feared that the dragon would fly out of the painting. In another story to represent a European art form, a master Blacksmith falls in love with a painter’s daughter. The father didn’t approve of him because of his profession. The blacksmith sneaked into his painting studio and painted a fly on the painter’s latest panel. The fly seemed so real that the painter tried to hit it first before realizing it was in the painting. The painter accepted him as a trainee in his studio. The blacksmith married the painter’s daughter and later became one of the famous painters of his time. These stories revealed as to how art form is believed to be followed in two different regions in the world. In Europe, an artist wants the viewer to see a real viewpoint by borrowing his eyes. The art must be perfect and must be illusion likeness. Whereas, in China, the artist doesn’t paint a real one but uses his inner and spiritual voice to create an abstract piece. The viewer can enter the painting from any point and can travel according to his own imagination. The artist wants the viewer to enter his mind and create a path of its own. This concept is called ‘Shanshui’ which means ‘mountain water’. When they are used together, they make the word ‘landscape’.