Internet can be our Salon des Refuses

Exciting, great art has never been about comfort. One of its prime functions is to provoke, to tamper with stereotypes, to jolt us out of kitschy convention, and narrow, avuncular ideas of beauty. When Paris in 1863 staged the Salon des Refuses - an exhibition of works rejected by the official Paris Salon's jury because it found them scandalous and tasteless - it was not a sideshow but a revolution. Manet's 'Dejeuner sur l'herbe' (Luncheon on the Grass) and other 'misfits' became the very pulse of modernism. What was dismissed as improper became the seedbed of greatness. India has found itself at a similar crossroad for a while now, M F Husain being only one of its most famous casualties. Removal of Tom Vattakuzhy's 'Supper at a Nunnery' - a reinterpretation of The Last Supper - from the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale is the latest capitulation to conservative pressure.

The 19th-c. 'Refuses' may provide a remedy. If the 'alt salon' gave rejected French artists a great platform, the 21st c. can find an online space for exhibiting India's rejected artworks and artists. Gatekeepers are fewer, audiences wider, and appetite for provocative art stronger. Such a space can find resonance in digital galleries, social media feeds and global forums where recognition is not bestowed by curators, but earned through dekho, dialogue, digital distribution. Valuation, not just value, of contemporary Indian art also breaks out of its usual holy bullring.

Calls for rejection by the mob stuck in identity politics need not be the end of an artist's work. A 'refuses' tag should even add intangible value to the artwork among buyers. Artists can sidestep institutional-political approval and create without censors - perceived or real - looming behind their canvas.