Extraordinary And Plenipotentiary Diplomatist July 19 Edition . | Page 7

RESTING TIMES
BY DR. SUNIL K. SUKUMARAN*
I
am glad we are “living in interesting times,” courtesy
Modi 1.0 and now Modi 2.0. This often used expression of
wishing someone to “live in interesting times” purportedly
is a translation of some apocryphal Chinese curse; yes! you
read that right: a curse! So oft-used it is that perhaps the most
infl uential art exhibition in the world, the Venice Biennale Arte
2019 is themed “May You Live In Interesting Times.”
Why a curse you may very well ask? Well, apparently unin-
teresting times are a time of stability and strength, and peace and
harmony. Hence interesting would be the converse. Interestingly,
there have been uninteresting times for decades if not centuries
during various reigns and regimes of despotism and feudalism
when the common folk or the proletariat hung in there; neither
gung-ho nor “interesting,” yet not content and far from happy.
Are those the uninteresting times we should aspire for?
Narendra Modi has made India more interesting. And
interesting is good; an uninteresting acceptance of a languid
state of ennui is highly undesirable and unacceptable.
I thought the Venice Arte Biennale’s title for this year about
living in interesting times was at best uninspiring. Of course, art
needs to be interesting, but it would thrive more in uninteresting
times if we were to believe in the curse. Why would one bother
with art in interesting times? Maybe, Ralph Rugoff the current
curator of the Exhibition has got it right: interesting times are
good and not a curse after all.
Great art needs to inspire awe and be “interesting.” Art
for shock has also been around for ages: Serrano’s Immersion
(Piss Christ) is regarded among one of the seminal works of
“shock art.” However, I love my art to inspire awe, not induce
shock. Who can ever forget Malevich’s Black Square when
in that decisive, apocalyptic moment with a few brushstrokes
on his previously used canvas he obliterated any pictorial
illusion whatsoever of three dimensions, thereby banishing
recessive spaces and modelled forms of post-Renaissance
art, the naturalistic light and colour of Impressionism, and the
fl eeting glimpses of the objective world. The genius lies not
merely in the simplicity or literalness of the black square, but
more so in the stupendous discovery that led to its creation, the
purgatory; it was cataclysmal. In one astonishing moment of
intuition, with that epiphanic masterstroke, Malevich severed
all ties with the past; he trashed all values held sacred up till
then. Malevich’s work was literally and metaphorically the
ending and beginning of painting; it sounded the death knell for
the old and became the harbinger of the new. The square is not
a subconscious form. It is the creation of intuitive reason, the
face of the new Art. The square is the Living. Malevich called
it the “zero point of painting.” He had reduced everything to
the “zero of form” and transformed himself and emerged from
nothing to creation. Modi walks a similar path.
Satiety agitates, placidity cogitates, and art invigorates.
Art sows and reaps for the soul and not the body. The body
needs to survive while a lifeless soul may need sustenance
from an artist or perhaps even God. For civilizations to thrive,
survivability is a prerequisite followed by stability in spirit
and life; Darwinian though it may sound, it is a given. Those
who decry Modi as a parvenu reek of pusillanimity, and
need a lesson in art and history: it is fi ne to be a “chaiwalla”
(tea-seller) and yet be anointed as “chowkidar” (guardian).
His inalienable right, which no opposition or detractor can
expunge or besmirch despite puerile outbursts from the scion,
the debutante, and their statesmen. Modi’s 2019 mandate is
exemplary of that fact. Some of the greatest artists and leaders
and thinkers and philosophers that the world has ever known
were not lineage-rich. Apathy and tyranny are two sides of a
perfi dious coin. Revolutions and rebellions are not an outcome
of interesting but of uninteresting times: of utter disdain for
dynastic regimes with tyrannical apathy for the masses; the
uprisings in the resolute belief that the “common” strife would
lead to interesting times. Art and Life are ineluctably entwined
whether one is a proponent of ancient mimesis or modern anti-
mimesis. Malevich chose Black; Modi chose Saff ron. Both
realised, symbolically, of course, their colours to be the ultimate
fullness, their individual colours that would give birth to light
and hope in Art and Life, respectively. It is said that change
is the only constant. We all seek rapid change, but Modi did
state that our great nation is akin to a heavy goods locomotive
and not a two wheeled scooter; turning it in the right direction
would take time. We live in hope and with faith. Modi 2.0 is a
triumphant victory of faith for kind, and a reaffi rmation of the
indomitable and ever puissant Bharatiya spirit. May Modi’s
era provide succour for body and mind; the artists can do the
rest for the soul. Modi will be the intuitive face of the living
and the reason of hope, the very hope we breathe and believe.
All Bharatiyas need benevolence and benefi cence that we
were bereft of in the past from a leader who eff ects eff ective
governance: I truly am glad that we are “living in interesting
times,” courtesy Modi 1.0 and now Modi 2.0. 
* Sunil K. Sukumaran, M.Sc., D.Phil. (Oxon.), is the
editor-in-chief of Diplomatist magazine and has written
extensively on art, politics, and literature. He may be
contacted at [e-mail]
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 7 • July 2019, Noida • 7