Mitu Basu in Conversation with Michael Corbin

It feels great to be chatting with you. You have described Mumbai bang on. It is bursting at the seams with energy, ideas, dreams, hopes, and hopelessness — a mass of diverse people who coexist amid glaring disparities. We call it the land of opportunity. Everyone gets a fair chance to make it or break it here.

Our father got posted here when I was two, along with my nine siblings. To me, it is my birthplace. A city that can never judge, intrude, or discourage you. It is a safe city for women. Have I tempted you enough to come over?

India being impoverished is as far from the truth as saying only 8% of Americans have passports. These myths need to be busted. India is truly in exciting times. When the world markets are screaming saturation, we are just opening up. The untapped market potential is so humongous that the world is making a beeline here.

As an Artrepreneur, when I see the market opening up to art, I know for sure — new winds are blowing. The basics of food, clothing, and shelter are getting taken care of, and we are now ready to integrate lifestyle, luxury, and art into our lives.

The growing middle class — young, double income, professional, well-travelled and hugely aspirational — may not understand art but would know its asset value, its impact on status, or simply passion-invest for the sheer love of it.

As an artist, I believe that more than being understood, art must be felt. When we create, our emotions find their place in the sun. If it resonates in another heart, that is when you know your art is talking. When we walk through a gallery, we move past some works untouched, and suddenly one stares back, transfixing us. Somewhere, subconsciously, you must have experienced that emotion, and therefore it resonates. In this multi-complex world of diversities there are only nine emotions that hold the universe of humanity together. We all experience them sometimes, or the other — and that is precisely how the world can empathize with each other's art.

The theory of the nine emotions is a hand-me-down from our ancient text, the Natyashastra, written between 200 BC and 200 AD. We call it Navras — Nav meaning nine, Ras meaning essential emotions. Every human being, you, me, anyone in this universe, is actually a microcosm of the universe itself. Culture, race, religion are artificial separations. The cosmic truth is we are one and therefore the same emotions apply to all. The fundamental emotions — LOVE, JOY, WONDER, ANGER, COURAGE, SADNESS, FEAR, DISGUST and PEACE — remain universally immutable.

The viewer's emotional response is the keystone to experiencing art. If life is good and my heart is singing, Picasso's Weeping Woman may not touch me — but if it triggers in me memories of the hardships of my mother, my tear will add to the pool of the Weeping Woman and I will want to possess that art if I can afford it. The emotional resonance has morphed it into a masterpiece for me. Take Van Gogh — you can feel the feverish tension of his stroke, it channelled his depression and reinforced his sense of urgency. Like all masters he has been copied many times over, but bereft of the anguish and emotion of the original artist, copies will always remain cold. That is the power and value of emotion — the universal language of art.

"Let us pick five of your favourite paintings before you knew of this theory. Internalize, introspect and identify what really makes each one special for you. Let us see if your answers vindicate the theory. After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating."

I have been drawing ever since I can remember. In grade two we were asked to draw a flower drawn on the board for reference. I thought it strange that a cut flower could stand on its own so I placed it in a vase and the vase on a table. The next day the teacher singled out one drawing, asking who had done this — her tone was not pleasant. Scared, I raised my hand. I was in the middle of being reprimanded when our principal, a soft-spoken German nun, stepped in. On hearing the teacher, she asked me why I had added the vase and the table. Hearing my explanation she took me in her arms and said: You will be an artist one day. Those words later impacted me and steered me towards art.

I come from the city of joy, Kolkata — creativity in its DNA. My mother's artistic genes and my eldest brother's mentoring compounded that. He was an artist himself.

By nature I am driven by curiosity. Right at the start I had thought life should not be linear. I should be a free and fluid collector of experiences. Life was turning out that way and I was happy.

As university life came to a close I was a postgraduate with five years of exciting work life behind me. Publishing was seeing a boom and I joined a premier publishing house as their art director, doubling up as a journalist whenever I was intrigued enough to probe. Four years later I set up my own design studio and ran it for nine years. Great accounts, stimulating and creative challenges.

Five years of communications consultancy later I moved to The Leela Group of Hotels as General Manager Corporate Communications — ten years, with a study break of three months taken after eight years to air my mind. It proved to be pivotal. It changed my path and charted my homecoming to art.

The study leave was a fine art stint at Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore's iconic art university, Santiniketan. While studying art I was impacted by the talent around me and the realisation that their future was not supportive enough to sustain households. More than 85% of qualified artists were stepping out for secure non-creative jobs. When the mind awakes it disrupts the comfort zone. Can I do something, I asked myself. I have the connections — can I turn that to the advantage of artists? Yes. And thus was born Dolna, my brainchild.

A celebrated designer friend asked me what exactly I wished to do. Being a visual thinker I said: I see artists sit on my swing to get that push to fly high. Call it Dolna, he said — it means the swing in Bengali, short, captures the essence of your vision. Add to that, coincidentally it also happens to be my late mother's name. With her blessings, get started. So saying, he designed my logo — the upward swinging arc with the dominating red spot as if taken from my forehead to give it my stamp of identity. I loved it.

The spine of the structure: self-funded, to steer the company exactly as per my values and vision. Non-urban discoveries of talent alongside the articulate urban artist — they need us more. Handpicked artists whose works capture the ethos of India in content, style, symbolism or colour palette. Art taken into non-traditional spaces — clubs, hotels, malls — where families actually go. Art brought to children, who here are rarely exposed to touch, study or discuss original art. Artists taken out to travel and gain new insights. Dialogue and collaboration encouraged in the art fraternity. And the facilitation of selling art — to help make it a sustainable and viable career choice.

In your question lies the answer. Yes, the basics help us survive. But were we meant only to survive? Surely not. Unlike animals, humans need refinement, sensitivity, imagination, emotion, beauty, joy, provocation, aspiration, inspiration, therapeutic nurturing, empathy, introspection, perception — all of which can be stoked by art.

Being a visual thinker I see it this way: we take air for granted, but breeze makes us aware of the feel and existence of air. The universe likewise with all its elements is a tapestry of art, but again taken for granted like air. It is the artist who, with creations in any form, medium or discipline, awakens our mind to become aware of this incredible universe and its infinite possibilities. The creativity in exploring possibilities sparks inventions, innovations and steers progress.

The human race can trace and date its journey from the dark ages to modern times through the evolution of art. A picture speaks more than a thousand words — that makes visual art a powerful channel of influence with universal reach. Art may seem an indulgence and yet people who matter know that it is a great chronicler, crucial to communicating the identities and cultures of countries to the world at large.