Delhi Police & Art: Alliance Francaise' Statement on the closure of Sunil Gupta's photo-exhibition

This is a statement issued by the Alliance Francaise de Delhi, in consultation with the President of the Alliance Francaise (Delhi) and the Cultural Committee of the Governing Body, following the premature and undue closure of the photographic exhibition by Sunil Gupta entitled Sun City and Other Stories.


To begin with, we would like to assert that ever since it was established, the Alliance Francaise has always supported and endorsed cultural activities associated with the Freedom of Speech and Expression. It was in this spirit that we offered and used our institutional resources to organise the mentioned exhibition by well-known photographer and artist, Sunil Gupta. The exhibition was in fact inaugurated at 7.30pm on Friday, 23 March 2012 and was attended by over a hundred persons, including a cross-section of important personalities and luminaries. However, within two hours of its opening, a contingent of six policemen entered the gallery premises and insisted that the exhibition be closed. It was later intimated that the exhibition was in violation of Sections 188 and 292 of the Indian Penal Code. The Alliance Francaise used available means to resolve the matter and continue with the show. However, on continued persistence from the police, the Alliance was compelled to close the exhibition, which was done under duress and protest in the presence of the artist.


Following this unfortunate episode, because the Alliance believed it should still support the freedom of artistic expression, consulted the artist and its President, and decided to re-open the exhibition on Wednesday, 4 April 2012. The Alliance, therefore, re-fabricated the exhibition again at significant expense and even provided for additional security measures. However, prior to the second opening, a similar pattern ensued with intimation from the police that they would not permit the exhibition in its original form as they were bound to receive complaints and agitations regarding the nature of the exhibition.   At this point, to avoid any further controversy or damage to the artwork and premises, the re-opening was cancelled. It is pertinent to point out that even though the police had publicly stated that the content of the exhibition was not objectionable or unlawful, their verbal direction to the Alliance was to the contrary and was the governing factor in the decision to cancel the show.


We would like to re-state that the Alliance firmly believes in the Freedom of Expression. However, as a cultural institution, it has to be mindful of local cultural sensitivities.  While it does not accept the conclusion of the police - that the content of the exhibition is obscene - the Alliance was constrained to adhere to the directions of the police. In addition, even though the legality of the police action is questionable, their intimidatory tactics on both occasions sufficiently justify the Alliance Française decisions.


The Alliance Francaise has taken this time to gather the necessary information regarding what has happened, and to seek legal advice to get clarity on its rights and duties so that such unfortunate situations are avoided in the future. We hope that you appreciate the difficult and unprecedented position the Alliance was placed in and the steps that are now being taken to preserve the integrity of art and culture in India by this institution - Governing Body of Alliance Francaise De Delhi.
http://delhi.afindia.org/sites/default/files/afd_0.htm

See also: Police force closure of photo exhibition: The police have forced closure of an exhibition of eminent photographer Sunil Gupta at Alliance Francaise 
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article3257108.ece


NB: For a personal account of intimidation by moral/political police (both in and out of uniform), see: http://dilipsimeon.blogspot.in/2011/12/venue-for-speech-on-tamas-chronicle-of.html

Kieron Williamson: Boy wonder

Kieron Williamson's extraordinary gift as a painter has been likened by our own art critic to that of the Old Masters. But he's still only nine. What does the future hold for such a prodigy?


Maroon tie flying from his pale blue school shirt, Kieron Williamson hurtles along the lane outside his new home wearing a pair of hand-me-down inline skates. It is not how you might expect to find an artistic prodigy on the cusp of an exhibition that will earn in excess of £100,000.

Two years ago, when I first met Kieron, he was a sweetly monosyllabic seven-year-old whose unusually proficient pastels and acrylics of the countryside around his Norfolk home had attracted praise and a waiting list of 680 buyers. Now there is a waiting list of 6,000, as Americans, Chinese and Germans clamour for a Kieron original. Paintings he sold for £2,000 have been resold for £10,000. His fifth exhibition opened yesterday at his local gallery in Holt and sold out in 10-and-a-half minutes, one painting fetching £15,595.

http://www.kieronwilliamson.com/MyWork/tabid/346/language/en-US/Default.aspx

Two years is a long time for any child, let alone a prodigy. I wondered how nine-year-old Kieron would have changed, and how this unhealthy concoction of money and media hype might affect him..

Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin on the Rocks before and after restoration.

The exhibition leads up to one great climactic moment, when the National Gallery's Madonna of the Rocks is shown face to face with an earlier version of the same painting from the Louvre. In the words of Nicholas Penny, the director of the gallery – and a man not given to breathless exaggeration – this is "a juxtaposition that was almost certainly not seen even in Leonardo's own lifetime, nor at any time since, and one that is unlikely ever to be repeated".

It doesn't get any better for Leonardo scholars – especially as the London Madonna of the Rocks, traditionally regarded as the inferior of the two, with fewer passages confidently to be ascribed to the master, has recently been cleaned and studied afresh. The French version, yellowed and more damaged, at first glance looks the poor relation. But then, gradually, the subtlety and softness of the Paris version begins to emerge. An ambiguity to the gaze of the angel that sits on the right of the picture, pointing at John the Baptist, but apparently looking at something that might be behind your left shoulder..

It is that ambiguous gaze of Leonardo's subjects that mesmerises in the early rooms of the exhibition. Here we are shown how Leonardo broke the mould of Milanese royal portraits by rendering sitters not in strict profile, but half-turned towards or away from the viewer..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/nov/04/leonardo-vinci-amazes-national-gallery