I have been planning to buy the book.
I liked the review although I would have liked to see some reference to D D Kosambi's work.
At the end of the review, Karnik quotes this from the book:
"a painter would relate to the nature around him but not necessarily to the social environment." ("चित्रकार त्याच्या भोवतीच्या निसर्गाशी नाते जोडेल परन्तु तो सामाजिक पर्यावरणाशी जोडेलच असे नाही")
Karnik thinks this is not true. Artist also connects with the social environment, Karnik seems to say.
I feel both of them are not entirely correct.
It is likely that the artist doesn't connect even to the nature around him! Read an earlier post on the subject here.
Therefore, we can't trust an artist, particularly a bad one, to reflect truly anything. Neither nature nor social environment.
And are nature and social environment two different things to start with?
Here I strongly recommend an essay by Vasant Sarwate (वसंत सरवटे) on the subject of his home-studio: 'Chitrakarachi Kholee' (चित्रकाराची खोली), part of 'Vyangkala-Chitrakala' (व्यंगकला-चित्रकला), 2005.
In Sarwate's rooms, in Kolhapur and Mumbai, nature and society-at-large blend seamlessly. They are one.
Artist: the late JB Handelsman, The New Yorker, 28 February 1994