Theartofliving
The first generation of professional Ladakhi artists is in the making, thanks to a community effort. Anjuli Bhargava on how art offers a new means of livelihood in the mountainous state
‘EARLIER ONE COULDN’T EXPECT TO MAKE A LIVING FROM SELLING ART, SO MY FATHER ALWAYS TREATED IT ONLY AS A HOBBY’ TASHI NAMGYAL Ladakhi painter ‘LAMO IS THE FIRST PLATFORM FOR LOCAL ARTISTS TO BE SEEN BY THE REST OF THE WORLD. WE TOO GET HUGE EXPOSURE TO SEE WORK FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD’ CHEMAT DORJEY Ladakhi sculptor
Had Tsering Gurmet Kungyam, 28, been born two decades earlier, he could not have dreamt of doing what he is doing today. Born to parents in Ladakh with limited means and exposure, Gurmet’s passion for sculpting would never have seen the light of day. To his father — a carpenter by profession — breaking and shaping stones is what labour does; that someone might be willing to pay his son a small fortune to do it would never have occurred to him. Nor would he have been able to make his peace with his son’s choice of art as a profession.
Yet that’s what Gurmet does best and that’s what he wants to make a living out of. After graduating from Jammu University and then specialising in stone art at Banaras Hindu University, he didn’t really think he could make a career of sculpting in his hometown. Yet, he’s currently working on a ~41-lakh commission from the Gwalyang Drukpa, spiritual leader of the Drukpa sect, to sculpt an 18-ft-high bronze sculpture of the former king Sengge Namgyal (1616-1642). The sculpture is likely to be stationed at a prominent public spot in Ladakh’s capital, Leh, upon completion.
Born in a village called Sakti, Chemat Dorjey, 29, did his bachelor’s in fine arts from Jammu University and followed that with a master’s in creative sculpture. He was recently commissioned to make a metal sculpture of the courtship display of two birds by the Leh Development Authority. The value of the assignment: ~10 lakh.
Tashi Namgyal is exhibiting his paintings at the Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation’s (LAMO) bird festival in Ladakh’s Old Town along with a few other local artists and several international ones. Namgyal says that art and painting are in his blood and his father too painted but only as a hobby. “Earlier one couldn’t expect to make a living from selling art, so my father always treated it only as a hobby.” Now, he thinks it’s possible to convert his passion into his profession and that’s what he’s working hard to do.
Gurmet, Chemat and Namgyal represent what is likely to emerge as the first generation of professional artists from the rugged mountains and harsh landscape of Ladakh. Art and a deep sense of beauty are ingrained in Ladakhi culture. A highly developed yet subtle sense of aesthetics is evident in almost everything to do with local life. Wooden carved tables with intricate designs and radiant colours are to be found in every nook and corner. Walls and windows are painted wherever possible. Traditional art, including thangka painting, is to be found virtually everywhere — in cafés, resorts and local houses. There are still a few families for whom thangka is a vocation. Tsering Dorje, an artist and a senior teacher at the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, for instance, is a ninth-generation thangka artist.
Of late, however, there’s been a resurgence of art in the region, finding expression in both traditional and contemporary forms. There’s a host of reasons for this overdue movement in the mountainous state.
The single biggest factor is probably the emergence of LAMO. The organisation has helped revive local interest in art. Exhibitions are held regularly and several local artists’ work has sold at or after the exhibition held there. Local hotel and resort owners have bought works, as have foreign tourists.
“It is the first platform for local artists to be seen by the rest of the world. We too get huge exposure to see work from all over the world,” says Chemat. He has attended three art workshops at LAMO in 2013, 2014 and 2015. In 2016, he attended an art conclave in Lucknow’s Lalit Kala Akademi. In 2017, he participated in a regional wood-carving camp at the Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi. All these have helped him expand his own imagination, scope and the materials he works with, which now include fibre glass, wood, metal, stone, acrylic and paper. A few months ago Chemat participated in an exhibition at Delhi’s Lalit Kala Akademi and another in Bhopal’s Manav Sangha Rayla. Now counted among the established artists in the region, Chemat has also opened a studio and a small art gallery in Leh.
Growing societal acceptance has helped. Earlier, as elsewhere in India, parents would discourage sons, in particular, from considering art as a profession. Over the years, Gurmet, Chemat and Namgyal say that becoming a professional artist has come to be accepted since there are few job options available to start with. Most Ladakhi parents encourage their children to get a job with the government or the army. Chemat’s armyman father has seen many youngsters vying for army and government jobs and failing to get them — there are only so many such jobs available. Many youngsters make an attempt for a while and then end up opening a café or working at resorts. In this context, art now seems an acceptable career choice, too.
The autonomy given to Ladakh (under the state of Jammu & Kashmir) to manage its own affairs has also been an enabling factor. The J&K Culture Academy has started playing a more active role in promoting art though funds for public art projects are still hard to come by. The religious heads of Buddhist sects in Ladakh, too, have been financing art works of late.
Ever since 2009-10, the surge in tourism has meant that there are a number of boutique resorts, high-end properties and hotels that seek to give a Ladakhi touch to their properties. This has led to many artists being commissioned for murals, wood paintings or sculptures. Invariably, though, these assignments pay very little and end up devaluing the artist’s work. But some of the artists take up even low-paid assignments to get by.
A few well-heeled Ladakhis are now patronising specific artists and promoting their work. Wangchuk Fargo, owner of The Apricot Tree hotel in Nurla, has been one of the early patrons of local contemporary artists’ works. He says that often people tend to take for granted what is available in your “own backyard even while paying a fortune for something that is not local”. While a community valuing what’s local is yet to happen, he argues that the evolution will be slow but inevitable.
Monisha Ahmed, co-founder of LAMO, says that while contemporary art in Ladakh has now got off the ground, it’s early days yet. “Artists have to become less complacent and start thinking out of the box — both in mediums and content,” she feels. They need to move beyond landscapes and portraits or look at art only as paintings on the wall or sculptures. Graphic art, too, has remained thus far unexplored. Ahmed encourages Ladakhi artists to visit art fairs such as the Kochi-Muziris Biennale or those in other cities as it gives them muchneeded exposure. In November this year, LAMO took a group of Ladakhi artists to exhibit in Tokyo.
Ahmed has been personally supporting and nurturing several local artists, many of who have grown and evolved with LAMO. In fact when LAMO initially started selling local contemporary art, even pricing the works was a challenge: no work had really been sold by local artists previously. “There was no precedent, so pricing was an exercise in itself,” she explains. The artists and LAMO have worked closely to work out at what price their works should be sold, ensuring the works are not sold for less than their worth due to the artists’ own financial compulsions.
Last year LAMO assisted an art work at the paediatric ward of a heart clinic in Leh. At a broader level, LAMO works with many government bodies and tries to stress the importance of supporting local art — traditional and contemporary — at public spaces across the mountain state. As Ahmed sees it, contemporary Ladakhi art is just coming out of the shadows of traditional art.
It is a journey that has just begun. But like most journeys in the harsh land, reaching the final destination is easier imagined than done.