M S Murthy receives award, artists protest  

BENGALURU: Amid a lot of chaos and dissatisfaction from a faction of artists, the state government presented the Varnashilpi Venkatappa award to artist Dr M S Murthy as part of the annual life time achievement awards.The lifetime achievement awards instituted by the department of Kannada and Culture was presented in the City on Monday. The police had to later detain 17 artists who protested with black mask on their faces at Ravindra Kalaskhetra. 

A group of artists, under the banner of Venkatappa Art Gallery Forum (VAG Forum) stood in protest as the former Lalithakala Academy chairman, Dr Murthy was awarded. Primary contention among the protesters was that Dr Murthy had not stood up in support of artists and supported privatisation of VAG instead. The state government had earlier received severe backlash following a move to privatise the Gallery. Speaking to Express, Suresh, member, VAG Forum said that the artists were an agitated lot as Dr Murthy extended no support to artists who tried to save the gallery from being privatised.

“We also fear that the committee was not constituted as per the prescribed rules. It had to be chaired by someone who was the recipient of the previous year’s awards,” he said suspecting that the award could have been presented to Dr Murthy as he lauded the government’s move back then.

Suresh said that the Forum had a list of at least 15 other senior artists who were more deserving. “Be it seniority or contribution in the field, there were several other artists who had to be given the award. That is the reason we protested,” he added. Reacting to this, CM Siddaramaiah remarked that the government had no say in picking the awardees. The lifetime achievement awards were also presented to dancer Nandini Eshwar, singer Ramadasappa B and writer S Usha.