Indian Art And Modern Criticism مقاله

In order to appreciate the ramifications and implica• tions of" Havellism "(to use the term which has crystallis• ed that hotch-potch of parochial, historical and artistic values in Indian Art criticism of which Mr. Havell's books are a leading example) we must consider this author's own explanation-such as it is-of how, when he was Principal of the Calcutta School of Art, he trained India's first "live artist,,, Dr. Abanindra Nath- Tagore. So the beginning of Dr. Tagore's training in Art, as appears from Mr. Havell's own account, was " the European rou• tine of technical training "; while the end of it was that (like the Bombay School) " in matters of technique he had adopted a compromise between European and Indian methods " · I shall return to this question of Mr. Havell's (1) ; "Indi an Sculpture and Painting. . This is a fraction of what this critic writes of the paintings of the Indian students in Bombay, of which, as he himself admits, he had seen no more than one or two photographic reproductions in a magazine: " A European artist, viewing these paintings with indulgence and condescension, might find much merit in them as the work of promising Indian school- ( I) On page 171 of '' Indian Sculpture and Painting" (2nd edition) Mr. Havell tells us : " 1 engaged a Juipur painter to decorate the entrance hall of the Calcutta School of Art and to give instruction to the students.