New Delhi: European art schools may be making history and cashing in on market trends but Indian institutions provide a study in contrast.

Francis Bacon's "Man Turning on the Light", which he gave to the Royal College of Art in lieu of studio rent, was sold at Christie's on Sunday for 8 million pounds ($16.25 million) to provide better infrastructure to students. But how many Indian art schools can boast of something like that?

Art colleges in the country are grappling with teachers who are disinterested and caught in the throes of being seen in the right places and making money overnight. Recently, a teacher in an art college was found to be part of a drunken brawl.

"We need gurus like Bikash Bhattacharya and Somenath Hore who inspire us and take us through the process of art evolution to prepare us for modern challenges," a student of the Delhi College of Art told IANS.

A student of Kolkata's Government College of Arts echoed the view: "In the olden days, artists could say that they had gurus like Bikash Bhattacharya, Ganesh Pyne, Ganesh Haloi and Somenath Hore. But now we cannot boast of that degree of greatness."

Lack of an adequate salary structure, modern infrastructure and passion for pushing students to new terrains is keeping back the quality of art colleges in the nation.

Bose Krishnamachari, who wears the mantle of an avant-garde artist with consummate flair, used to teach at Mumbai's Sir J.J. School of Art but was thrown out because he dared to question the archaic practices of the management.

Known mainly for installation art, Krishnamachari has received rave reviews from art critics all over the country. One of his most famous installations was intriguingly titled "AmUseuM", a landmark in his career, which overturned artistic notions of gallery space and fine arts.

His work spotlights figures and cultures as varied as those of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera, Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, and India's own Rabindranath Tagore. In an earlier interview, he said: "Art colleges must move with the times otherwise they will remain in a time warp, fossilised beyond functioning."

Art colleges in the nation need perhaps a purging out of vested interests, archaic notions and outdated textbook connotations with a whitewash of modern techniques and a liberated approach to artistic domains and sensibilities.

The Government also needs to revise salary scales and make the profession attractive enough for good teaching faculties. IANS