Indian Art at a Crucial Juncture

Indian art is now poised at a crucial stage and in the near future the results from the upcoming auctions will help in indicating the growth rate of the art market. Dinesh Vazirani, Director of Saffron Art auction house, who was recently in Bangalore for a talk on the Indian modern and contemporary art and how it has grown dramatically in the last few years, also pointed out that the next 12 months or so will determine the course of Indian art in the international arena.

The soon to be held Sotheby’s auction of Indian art comprises of 123 lots by a variety of Indian artists – both modern and contemporary. On May 2, London is expected to be abuzz with the colours of Indian art. The Sotheby’s auction is expected to bring in around 24,00,000 GBP. The auction will feature works by artists such as Jamini Roy, S H Raza, Ramkumar, Shakti Burman, Badri Narayan, Laxma Goud, Krishen Khanna amongst others.

FN Souza’s ‘The Red Road’ has the highest estimated price between 250,000 – 350,000 GBP, followed by Akbar Padamsee’s two works that are estimated between 150,000 – 250,000 GBP each. Incidentally, 11 works by Souza ranging from a lower estimate of 3,000 GBP (for the lowest priced work) onwards will be placed for bidding. Whereas, ‘The Thief of Baghdad’, a diptych painted by MF Husain is estimated to fetch between 100,000 – 150,000 GBP. There are 7 works by Husain too where the lowest priced work begins at a lower estimate of 30,000 GBP.

There are two works by Rabindranath Tagore as well, titled ‘Bird’ (pen and coloured inks on paper) and ‘The Death Scene’ (gouache and coloured inks on paper) which will also be coming up for bidding. Then there are works by Subodh Gupta, Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, T V Santosh, Sudhir Patwardhan, Chintan Upadhay and Shilpa Gupta amongst a bevy of others.

All eyes are now on this auction and the results will be of special significance for collectors and investors of Indian art.

Divergent Discourses

Last week saw Dinesh Vazirani, Director, Saffronart - an online auction house - giving a talk in Bangalore. He delivered a lecture on modern and contemporary Indian art before a select gathering of art collectors, gallery owners and art aficionados. What made the evening particularly interesting was that such interactions between the various members of the art community are rare in Bangalore.
The event, organised by Tangerine Art Space, was part of the opening of their art exhibition ‘Divergent Discourses’ that featured established artists such S G Vasudev, Yusuf Arakkal, Manu Parekh, Jogen Chowdhary, Krishen Khanna, Laxma Goud, Rameshwar Broota, Rini Dhumal, Surya Prakash and T Vaikuntam, amongst others. The single-day exhibition at the venue now continues online on their website.

Dinesh Vazirani focused on the timelines of Indian art, how it has evolved over the years, and in particular, how the art market has grown exponentially over the years. He also touched on the various factors that impact pricing and the state of the market.
The contemporary art market has grown spectacularly in the last couple of years and Vazirani elaborated upon it with facts and figures. You will remember, last year, at the Christie’s auction of Asian contemporary art held in Hong Kong, Harsha’s painting ‘Mass Marriage’ went for a hammer price of HK$ 6.4 million, which was a record for any Indian contemporary artist. N S Harsha, who lives in Mysore, made one of his rare appearances and was present at the talk. He was given a much-deserved standing ovation. Harsha happens to be not only incredibly talented and extremely grounded, but also one of the most articulate (minus the sales pitch) artists I have met.
One must give credit to Leena Chethan the Founder Director of Tangerine Art Space for organising such an event. Incidentally, Leena drew a lot of flak for the first art show that she had organised a couple of years ago.

But, coming back to the present, an interactive forum such as this is vital in bringing together all players connected with the art field. It also leads to a healthy discussion, and creates a positive atmosphere for the city’s art lovers. Hopefully, such interactions will eventually also help in bringing more transparency (much needed) to the market.

(Published in Bangalore Mirror)

Affordable art with investment value

How the definition of affordable art has changed over the years! Having grown at a furious pace in the last few years, the Indian art market is currently estimated to be valued at around Rs 1,500 crores. And, market sources predict that Indian art is likely to continue its impressive performance, but what is unclear or has an element of ambiguity is the growth rate. Whether the market grows at the same spectacular rate it has seen in the past remains to be seen. Despite this most experts feel that Indian art is one of the safest investment options, provided one invests after a thorough research and looks at it as a long term asset.

Affordability is surely a relative term. Earlier where one looked at investing Rs 10,000 to 50,000 on a painting; prices have now climbed substantially higher and now involve more than five digits. A few years ago one could buy an average sized work of art with associated investment value for less than a lakh, whereas now one would have to spend at least Rs 2 lakhs and above to pick up an artist with some investment potential. In fact, those contemporary artists who are considered to be ‘safe’ in terms of their investment potential are available only above Rs 5 lakhs. Unfortunately, these high figures can be a major deterrent to those looking at buying an affordable range of art that goes beyond decorative purposes.

Galleries and dealers are therefore introducing new artists with attractive pricing to plug the resultant gap in the market. This also helps in broadening the buyer base. At the same time this bodes well for young artists and promising talent. Students, fresh graduates and artists with 2 to 3 years experience are in a better position than ever before to sell their artworks. The demand for affordable art ensures that gallery representatives scout actively for reasonably priced artists and these are then marketed aggressively to create a clientele.

(Published in Financial Times)

An exhibition to die for - literally

I came across the following article in 'The Art Newspaper' and wanted to share it with you. Click on the link below to read the full story and let me know what you think. Do you think it is sensationalizing art or is it a natural extension of creativity? I look forward to your opinions.

- NM

An exhibition to die for—literally
LONDON. The German artist Gregor Schneider is planning the ultimate performance piece: showing a person dying as part of an exhibition. “I want to display a person dying naturally in the piece or...

(Courtesy: The Art Newspaper)

Abstraction

Have you stood before an abstract work of art and wondered what it was? Well, you’re not alone. Most of us have trouble understanding a non-representational or a non-figurative painting - in other words a painting that has no recognizable form or objects. Going back in time, abstract expressionism developed as a result of a movement that began in the late 1940s and picked up momentum during the 1950s. You might be familiar with artist Jackson Pollock’s experiment with a dripping can of paint and a canvas placed on the floor. Pollock swung his arms around over the canvas and this process called action painting resulted in an abstract work. The idea was that these intuitive movements gave expression to an artist’s creativity at the sub-conscious level.

To understand an abstract art that is completely non-specific, sometimes, it needs to be placed in context - the artist’s life, background and environment help to relate to the artwork. A good abstract art should visually draw the viewer and have an impact on him. I bought a couple of paintings from Hariraam, an artist from Chennai (his abstracts that explore the concept of time and space are amazing), and what he said makes perfect sense, “to understand abstraction you need to put in a certain amount of effort. What you need is sensibility, and not necessarily intelligence. Remember, a work of art is not a piece of wizardry. An artist creates by virtue of his own inner process and then offers it to the viewer.” Some of the well-known Indian artists celebrated for their abstracts are VS Gaitonde, J Swaminathan, V Vishwanadhan and Prabhakar Kolte.

Now, Sheetal Gattani, an artist from Mumbai is exhibiting her recent abstracts in Bangalore and her minimal palette is a delight to watch. Watercolors and acrylics on paper and canvas respectively have been layered extensively to create these non-representational paintings. Devoid of any form and identifiable elements her abstracts are minimal in all aspects. She explains, “I seek to paint without any past conditioning. I’d like the viewer to experience the same… To me it’s important to paint without a mind, just responding to the medium, light and space, the unity of it all. I enjoy the labour, the deepening and unfolding of layers.” Perhaps that best explains her paintings that otherwise defy categorization or justification.

(The exhibition will be on till April 25 at Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore 27.)

(Published in Bangalore Mirror)