The Venkatappa Art Gallery Forum will continue to protest against the Varnashilpi Venkatappa award given to artist M S Murthy. “It is not over yet,” states artist Raghu Wodeyar, a day after he and few others from the faction of artists protesting against the development, were detained by police. On December 11, around 20 artists had gathered at Ravindra Kalakshetra under the banner of Venkatappa Art Gallery Forum (VAG Forum) to show disapproval of the award given to the former Lalitha Kala Academy chairman, Murthy by the State government as part of the annual life time achievement awards. The other recipients included personalities such as dancer Nandini Eshwar, singer Ramadasappa B and writer S Usha.
The artists had donned Mysore Peta, (as a reference to the traditional silk turban worn by Venkatappa) and black masks on their faces. “We only had problem with the award being given to MS Murthy and not others. The award was given to a person, who had supported the privatisation of Venkatappa Art gallery and in the name of Venkatappa,” says Raghu.
The artist opines that certain rules were broken to give the award to Murthy. “It has been the norm to name the previous years’ awardee as the chairman of the current years’ award selection committee. This year, MR Balekai should have rightfully been the chairman but SG Vasudev was made the chairman. It is very fishy the way the committee was created. We never intended it to be a violent protest. But looking at how Murthy changed the sequence of the awards, a few of us got upset and started shouting dhikkara dhikkara”
Raghu believes there are other senior and more deserving artists who should have got the award. “We never intended it to be a violent protest. But looking at how Murthy changed the sequence of the awards, a few of us got so upset and started shouting dhikkara dhikkara. It was supposed to be peaceful because we didn’t want to disrupt the event. It was a joyous occasion for the other recipients. We are also very unhappy with the upkeep of Venkatappa Art Gallery. Look at the condition of the gallery.” SG Vasudev says, “I have nothing else to say except that the whole process is very transparent for anyone to see and I was invited to head the committee.”