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Right before the Jehangir Art Gallery in Colaba sit more than fifteen artists, including painters, pencil artists, and even photographers, with their finest creations. They observe the passersby, who come, take photos and videos with their artworks or the artists, and leave. These are the younger crowd, mostly the Gen Zs and the millennials exploring the ongoing Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in Colaba, who, otherwise, fill up the space at the major area for the festival surrounding the Kala Ghoda statue, but just pay a quick visit to this site – that remains not-so-bustling even on a Saturday – that too, mostly, to capture for social media.
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Such has been a rife sight for many years now. Even with the proximity of the colleges, this space does not see the younger audience in yearly editions of the festival that takes place in January. However, Mumbai’s Goregaon area paints a different picture at the same time. The younger crowd that is not-so-bothered by the artwork while the artists behind them are also present are finding it fascinating to witness the paintings of the great and erstwhile painter Leonardo da Vinci in another ongoing exhibition, which is an immersive experience of his paintings created with the help of new technology, artificial intelligence. Be it the captivating nature of the technology or the emerging trend of becoming the ‘local guide’ over social media, this exhibition is registering the majority of the younger crowd as its visitors.
Similarly, another immersive experience curated with the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh held in 2023 in Mumbai and Delhi saw a relatively younger audience in a great number, which, in turn, made of his paintings, The Starry Night, an evident part of the pop culture.
All of it highlights the stark reality. While immersive and technologically-induced exhibitions attract the young crowd, irrespective of the cause, the traditional forms of art exhibitions still find it difficult to make space among the same audience. “It is the elderly that visit my work the most,” says a 70-year-old artist, Vinay Mehta, from a Mumbai-based art gallery.
Social media, distractions affordability, trends
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Mehta was one of the artists displaying his work at the recently concluded India Art Festival in Worli. Spanning across two floors of the Nehru Planetarium, the art festival might have displayed more than 5,000 artworks, but it still failed to capture the attention of the youth. Comparatively, people mostly in their 40s and above took part in the discussions and engaged with the artists and the art galleries, as some of them also considered purchasing the art following the conversations with the artists present.
A homemaker and a visual artist, Alpana Asthana believes that the inclination towards art is less among the young. “There are various distractions and options for the younger generation, and art does not make it to even the top of distractions,” the 63-year-old Parel resident laments. She, who also displayed her work at the exhibition, is seen mostly talking to the elderly visitors.
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Right in front of her, talking about his journey of painting landscapes, is the artist Ashwin Kumar – apparently, talking to a youngster who was interested in learning from him. But there is a reason for the same. Since 2020, when the painter started their journey, he has received good popularity on social media, ensuring that youngsters connect with him. However, that does not help him make business a lot. “I get visitors from all age groups, but it is the elderly that actually turn up buying,”
Rajneeta Kewal Ramani, the director of Beyond The Canvas art gallery from Chembur highlights the reason to be the lack of purchasing power of the youth that does not bring them to the exhibitions. “We have seen some parents visiting this exhibition with the children, and I am glad about that. But majorly, it is the elderly visiting such exhibitions ensuring business and sales,” the 56-year-old says.
Two levels up, a Kolhapur-based painter Mahesh Soundatte, awaits visitors and buyers for his paintings that take inspiration from the lives of rural women in the city of Maharashtra. Along with depicting the women doing traditional roles in his village, he has also started painting contemporary women to attract the younger crowd. As we stand ahead of one of his paintings showing women in groups and talking, he says, “The girls and women now go to schools, colleges, and even different professions and work in offices even in my village, and hence, I want to showcase that as well.”
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On receiving the feedback from the young, he says, “Young women like to see the paintings that describe their lives outside the homes,” however, he admits that the majority of the visitors are middle-aged and elderly people only, a testimony of which is the also the fact that the painting behind us gets sold to a woman in her 50s. But does a painter like him have to worry about tapping into the market trends as per the youth to ensure the smooth flow of the business? Fortunately or unfortunately, the answer is yes. He says, “I do maintain that the paintings align with the interests of the young, so I choose the issues or the topics accordingly to be able to capture the attention of the youth.”
Regardless of the subjects highlighted in the artwork, one of the most obvious facts in the business of art is that the affordability of buying the artwork only lies with the elderly. However, given the increasing interest in immersive experiences of art, one might hope that, at least, the new technology brings back the youth to the old forgotten traditional forms of art.
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