[Goanet] Goa's heritage under threat: The ongoing museum scandal
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Goa/Goas-heritage-under-threat-The-ongoing-museum-scandal/articleshow/39445523.cms This column is repeatedly compelled to point out no part of India treats its own artistic and cultural legacy more disgracefully than Goa. It's an ongoing problem lasting generations: this remarkable space produces wave after wave of artists and artisans of global significance, but they are rebuffed and ignored at home, with the biggest loser remaining the Goans. Thus serene abstractionist Vasudeo Gaitonde will have his first-ever retrospective in New York's Guggenheim later this year, while remaining largely unknown in his beloved homeland. Thus the best collection of world-renowned Indo-Portuguese furniture is displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London not in Goa. From Trindade to da Cruz to Fonseca to Gaitonde and Souza, each towering great of 20th century art sought to endow Panaji with a corpus of paintings for the benefit of future generations, and each retreated after being rejected. The sad truth is they were right not to trust Goa. Their precious artworks are obviously better off in London or New York or Delhi, because criminal neglect and willful ignorance continues to hold sway back home. The latest scandalous outrage came earlier this week with the announcement that Goa's government seeks bids from private agencies for safekeeping of 10,000 artifacts on a lease basis for two years to entrust the safe storage of the state's heritage legacy to private godown owners. Though this disgraceful, ridiculous scheme still has no takers, its very existence underlines this administration's abdication of responsibility for Goa's peerless cultural heritage. This leadership will expend weeks debating bikinis, but not a single voice is raised when the most crucial, defining artifacts from thousands of years of civilization in Goa face an active, perilous threat from the same irresponsible authorities tasked with their custodianship. Instead of doing the vital job on hand, there is instead only the same old mania for scam infrastructure-building which means contracts for cronies. Saligao-born Francis Newton Souza is widely considered the most significant modern Indian artist. He founded the Progressive Artists Movement (along with fellow-Goan, Gaitonde), mentored other all-time greats like Husain, Ara and Raza, and his work now sells for millions of dollars. Souza tried repeatedly to set up a permanent museum of his works in Goa, but found no cooperation. The fact the existing museum has a single, small work by this great artist is due the selflessness of Dom Martin (artist and long-time defender of Goa's heritage), who is justifiably shocked and dismayed by this administration's absurd go-down idea. There is a colossal ravine between the purpose and function of a museum and that of a godown says Martin, it is truly unprecedented that the state museum would solicit the services of the owner of a godown or other such facility, and officially collaborate with same into acting as the interim curator of the museum's historical assets! Martin points to the suitability of the vast, expensively renovated and climate-controlled Old Secretariat/Palacio Idalcao for this purpose, especially since utilization as a museum and gallery space has been delayed for more than three years due to inter-departmental bickering or whatever. If in fact this administration is hell-bent on pushing through contracts to rebuild the Patto facility, there is no doubt that this option is the least disastrous. There was a time when Goa had some ready-made excuses for its shabby treatment of its artistic and cultural heritage: this was a small state in a poor country where necessary human resources and expertise were scarce But all that has dramatically changed, and this administration has no such excuses for its irresponsibility. But instead of following the examples of so many first-rate institutions that have come up in the past decade, this government seems intent on opaque schemes that indulge its tender-mania. While it dithers with disastrous consequences for Goa's heritage, the Lisbon-based Fundacao Oriente has opened a lovely little museum in its Fontainhas premises to celebrate Antonio Trindade's paintings and the UK-based Helen Hamlyn Trust has renovated the Reis Magos Fort into a stunning jewel for cultural activities. Over in Mumbai, the once-moribund Prince of Wales Museum is humming with terrific new ideas and activity, while the once-derelict Bhau Daji Lad museum space now glitters perhaps the finest and most-innovative museum space in South Asia. But Goa?with every possible advantage?continues to go nowhere, the only state in the world blithely trying to tender its responsibilities to its own priceless, irreplaceable heritage. The judgment of future generations is sure to be extremely harsh on this administration's fatuous, frivolous schemes and criminal scandals that have now
Re: [Goanet] Goa's heritage under threat: The ongoing museum scandal
It is indeed disgraceful that the people and governments of Goa have no interest in their long history and tradition. The few who do, other than one or two genuine lovers of our diverse culture like Dom Martin, are focused only on their religion or personal biases, such as an extremely short-sighted version of our very recent history. Storing the precious wealth of Goan antiquity in a godown? What a joke! Cheers, Santosh On Monday, August 4, 2014 11:15 AM, V M vmin...@gmail.com wrote: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Goa/Goas-heritage-under-threat-The-ongoing-museum-scandal/articleshow/39445523.cms This column is repeatedly compelled to point out no part of India treats its own artistic and cultural legacy more disgracefully than Goa. It's an ongoing problem lasting generations: this remarkable space produces wave after wave of artists and artisans of global significance, but they are rebuffed and ignored at home, with the biggest loser remaining the Goans. Thus serene abstractionist Vasudeo Gaitonde will have his first-ever retrospective in New York's Guggenheim later this year, while remaining largely unknown in his beloved homeland. Thus the best collection of world-renowned Indo-Portuguese furniture is displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London not in Goa. From Trindade to da Cruz to Fonseca to Gaitonde and Souza, each towering great of 20th century art sought to endow Panaji with a corpus of paintings for the benefit of future generations, and each retreated after being rejected. The sad truth is they were right not to trust Goa. Their precious artworks are obviously better off in London or New York or Delhi, because criminal neglect and willful ignorance continues to hold sway back home. The latest scandalous outrage came earlier this week with the announcement that Goa's government seeks bids from private agencies for safekeeping of 10,000 artifacts on a lease basis for two years to entrust the safe storage of the state's heritage legacy to private godown owners. Though this disgraceful, ridiculous scheme still has no takers, its very existence underlines this administration's abdication of responsibility for Goa's peerless cultural heritage. This leadership will expend weeks debating bikinis, but not a single voice is raised when the most crucial, defining artifacts from thousands of years of civilization in Goa face an active, perilous threat from the same irresponsible authorities tasked with their custodianship. Instead of doing the vital job on hand, there is instead only the same old mania for scam infrastructure-building which means contracts for cronies. Saligao-born Francis Newton Souza is widely considered the most significant modern Indian artist. He founded the Progressive Artists Movement (along with fellow-Goan, Gaitonde), mentored other all-time greats like Husain, Ara and Raza, and his work now sells for millions of dollars. Souza tried repeatedly to set up a permanent museum of his works in Goa, but found no cooperation. The fact the existing museum has a single, small work by this great artist is due the selflessness of Dom Martin (artist and long-time defender of Goa's heritage), who is justifiably shocked and dismayed by this administration's absurd go-down idea. There is a colossal ravine between the purpose and function of a museum and that of a godown says Martin, it is truly unprecedented that the state museum would solicit the services of the owner of a godown or other such facility, and officially collaborate with same into acting as the interim curator of the museum's historical assets! Martin points to the suitability of the vast, expensively renovated and climate-controlled Old Secretariat/Palacio Idalcao for this purpose, especially since utilization as a museum and gallery space has been delayed for more than three years due to inter-departmental bickering or whatever. If in fact this administration is hell-bent on pushing through contracts to rebuild the Patto facility, there is no doubt that this option is the least disastrous. There was a time when Goa had some ready-made excuses for its shabby treatment of its artistic and cultural heritage: this was a small state in a poor country where necessary human resources and expertise were scarce But all that has dramatically changed, and this administration has no such excuses for its irresponsibility. But instead of following the examples of so many first-rate institutions that have come up in the past decade, this government seems intent on opaque schemes that indulge its tender-mania. While it dithers with disastrous consequences for Goa's heritage, the Lisbon-based Fundacao Oriente has opened a lovely little museum in its Fontainhas premises to celebrate Antonio Trindade's paintings and the UK-based Helen Hamlyn Trust has renovated the Reis Magos Fort into a stunning jewel for cultural activities.
