Opinion | China-India rivalry opens up a new cultural front: state-sponsored vs spontaneous art
- John Zarobell says that much as US abstract art once competed with socialist realism propaganda, India’s and China’s competing visions for art are now vying for cultural influence
As globalisation has distributed economic benefits around the world more broadly, emerging economies are stepping up to express their role as actors in the global sphere.
While China is shoring up its sphere of influence through economic partnerships, its leaders launched a five-year plan to build 3,500 museums in five years; they completed this in three years in 2012 and have added hundreds every year since. There is a hint of civic largesse, but China is also signalling its cultural centrality, aiming to demonstrate the enduring edifice of Chinese civilisation and the authority it confers on the Chinese people and state to rule over an ever-widening domain.
India, among rising global economies, can make similar claims to global centrality and a case for global significance as a producer of culture. Because India does not have the same state resources devoted to cultural institutions as China, museums have not played a central role. Nonetheless, one private initiative has sought to put Delhi on the art world map.
The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art is built around the private collection of a single individual with the goal of leaving a large impact. Thanks to the funding of touring exhibitions and catalogues, this museum has provided a broader spectrum of South Asian contemporary art than can be seen in most Western museums.
