Statutory warning: This column will offend those in the art fraternity who don't like holding a mirror to the truth.
Art camp? Google the two words and you’ll find a lot of information about organisations that run camps with drawing/painting as their focus, intended mainly for children. Restrict your search to India and the results will be surprisingly grown-up: An art camp at a five-star hotel in Mumbai, now in its nth year; another run every year since the 1990s by an industrialist art aficionado; art camps in Kolkata, the Himalayas, Rajasthan, Kerala, or even Egypt, London, Mexico…
It’s also a scam.
To understand what an art camp means in the Indian context, you need to know how one operates. To explain that, let us say that a gallerist negotiates a deal for a week-long cruise on the Nile for seven days for a group of 10-odd people. Having made the bookings and got a good rate, the gallerist blocks passages on flights to Egypt and back to India, and then begins the task of inviting artists to be a part of this “artist’s camp”.
Artists usually take the bait. For them, it means a free holiday. Their payment? It’s not something you’ll find in the fine print, but is tacitly understood: Usually two works painted during the camp are the artist’s “payment” to the gallerist (or for the collector, who also often organise such camps).
For the gallerist, it works out to a good deal: 10 artists x two paintings each = 20 canvases at the cost of a reasonably worked out package. It helps them build up a collection fast, it could result in an exhibition, and it translates into a fixed deposit for the future if at least a few of those artists are blue chip. For a collector, imagine an addition of 20-odd works of art for the cost of a tour. It’s a win-win situation.
So, if everyone’s happy, why am I cribbing?
To understand that, let me first explain what’s in it for the artists. Artists tend to treat such camps as a vacation for which they pay in kind, something that doesn’t involve more than a little effort. But the pay-off for them — or at least what they’re hoping for — is not just the sightseeing and long brunches, but the value of being in a confined space with fellow artists, to observe techniques of works in progress, and hold discussions, which, in the absence of any common platform for artists in India, could be hugely beneficial.
Only, it rarely works that way. There are so many art camps being organised at any point of time that collecting the right group of artists is almost impossible. A few senior artists might say yes right away (south America or Africa might be hard to resist); several others will promise to “revert”. As the day for departure nears, the gallerist/collector will find that the travel agent is pressuring them for confirmations, but that they can’t offer a place to other artists while they’re still waiting for a response from those initially invited. As a result, and often at the last minute, a motley group of artists with little in common will become the “group” for the “camp”. Senior artists are usually offended that their peer group doesn’t measure up, so in a sulk they spend their time shopping, or sightseeing, or negotiating with other gallerists/collectors/curators on the side. The middle group learns nothing from the seniors but is at least sincere, while the juniors are the most excited but also the most dysfunctional since they are overawed by the presence of senior artists, and possibly their debut overseas on such luxury trips. The situation is only superficially idyllic; within the group, tempers and competition rage.
Of course, this is not always true; some art camps that are professionally curated add immense value to the system, and to the process of art dissemination in India. Only, these are the exception and not yet the rule.
Let me explain further: When the atmosphere is strained, when artists want to pack in as much from their trip as possible — and art is only a fractional part of it — but since they are aware of their obligation, they know they must fulfill it. Therefore, what you will get is hastily painted canvases, sometimes with the local art or destination as a reference point. But no great art has ever emerged from an art camp. Where is the time for it anyway?
So long as a collector or a corporate office or a hotel chain wants to leverage this for themselves, that is fine. But it becomes a problem when such art comes into the market. For art is also about quality. And consistency. “Camp” art, on the other hand, is art in a hurry, and less than likely to measure up to what an artist paints in his own studio. Curated art camps aside, I can understand why some collectors might want to organise them, why even some gallerists might opt for them (not all galleries are guilty of this avariciousness), but I cannot understand why almost all artists I know are ready to pimp their talent for a mere holiday.
And now I fear they’ll never tell me anyway.
