Why art is art | Ramya Sarma, The Hindu

This article is a book review of a new novel by Indian writer V. Sanjay Kuman, Artist, Undone. Sarma's description of the book suggests a story much those written by one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami.

But what initially captured my interest was Sarma's introductory paragraph. It begins:

If every artist stuck to his or her familiar genre instead of experimenting with others, life would be rather dull. It is from exploration that novelty begins and serendipity can take credit for a great deal of what is fun, exciting and, indeed, interesting. Writing, for instance, is often not easy for a painter, who otherwise would express a vision of the world and its idiosyncrasies with fluency and sophistication. ...

As for the book review, Sarma concludes:

The book is well written, fluent, easy to read, its words used with celerity and adventurousness, but [the] story itself is not especially coherent or meaningful, not at first reading. ... What is a great deal of fun is the insight provided into the art world, its madness and whimsies, the people who populate it, from the artists to the critics to the buyers to even the occasional visitors to art shows. ...

I'll consider it serendipity that I came across this review. So I might just read this book!