Book Review | BN Goswamy's Conversations, a collection of his art columns, is a guide to every new enthusiast

It is not rare to find art columns in newspapers. It is, however, rare to find art columns that just about anybody can understand and appreciate. Art historian and critic BN Goswamy’s latest book, Conversations, is a compilation of his art columns for those who want to read and understand all things art. The book compiles Goswamy’s regular columns titled ‘Art and Soul’ in Chandigarh’s daily newspaper The Tribune, written over the last 25 years. As the title of the book goes, the selection of 125 short essays read more like conversations between him and the readers, written like tête-à-tête that would elicit a response from beyond the page. The 500-page book covers topics on art in all forms, including paintings, textiles, calligraphy, architecture, theatre and more. While writing on all these topics, Goswamy has also paid homage to some of the towering figures in art and art writing, including Ananda Coomaraswamy, Gautam Sarabhai, and Karl Khandalavala. In reading the 125-odd essays, Goswamy has laid out sort of commandments on how to write about, how to look at, how to perceive, and how to appreciate art, from its subtlest to the most apparent aspects. Reading the book, what remains constant is his connection with the reader in his way of looking at and around art.   As someone who has started to appreciate art second-handedly, by reading articles and pieces instead of being in the presence of artists, Goswamy’s writing resonated with me in the type of questions he asked: Very basic, almost amateur-ish, but also quite pertinent in their need to be asked. For example, during one of his trips to Bulgaria, about which he wrote in The Tribune on 19 April, 1996, Goswamy visited the Cyril and Methodius International Foundation. The Foundation houses art and artefacts from diverse cultures of the world. Going through the “sizeable collection” of Indian art, including miniatures representing Jaina, Rajasthani, Mughal, Deccani, and Pahari schools, he says one could “act superior and be dismissive of a collection like this." Then he raises a question that could be generally dismissed or ignored by art enthusiasts, or one that is too basic to be addressed, regarding the small yet surprising collection of Indian art in Bulgaria. “But then this collection is at least there, for Bulgarians to see and share in, providing a decent insight into another culture. What, one might ask in turn, do we know of Bulgarian art? Is there a single work in any Indian collection that could be identified as Bulgarian? Does the average museum-goer in India even know what an icon in the Eastern Orthodox tradition looks like?”   The questions, in the para above, posed by one of the most known Indian art historians, read just like any questions that could pop up in the head of a casual, albeit slightly curious, onlooker. There is nothing scholarly or intellectual about Goswamy’s curiosities here, and that, I think, is what makes him stand out among his art-writing peers. I must make a confession: I arrived late at the party where people talked about art, artists and art writers. It did not make much sense to me when I first heard words like baroque, cubism, art deco, and art nouveau among others. I have been to exhibitions and museum tours, and read reams of pages that were turned black by some of the most influential names in art writing, I must say it made little more sense to me than reading Dutch. I cannot read Dutch. Art writers tend to present art with such dry complexity that a layman can leave his wits at the beginning of a para and pick it up from the floor where it fell almost right away. Of course, the reader is left in awe of the writer for having written a language that perhaps died some years after Queen Victoria. However, they are none the wiser when it comes to the subject matter of the said writing. Goswamy excels at making sense to anyone who can give two minutes to his essays.

It is another thing that his writing deserves a little more time and attention than what a casual reader can leisurely afford, but not owing to its complexity but to appreciate the subtleties of his writing.  

This book is evidence that an understanding of art need not be presented using convoluted paragraphs of indecipherable sentences.   I come from a place in Rajasthan where they did not deliver The Tribune, and a generation that first experienced workable speeds of the internet after finishing college. I thank you, Professor Goswamy, for this collection of essays, which I believe your followers have already read over the last 25 years. For me, it has opened a new dimension into reading and understanding all things art. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.