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01-Jan-07
Demand’s fine, but artists shouldn’t compromise
[January 01, 2007]ASHOKE NAG for The Economic Times
KOLKATA: The Indian art market should continue to grow and the appreciation in prices is certainly a positive sign. But, artists should ensure that the increasing number of buyers and higher demand do not affect the quality of their works,” Paris-based painter Sakti Burman told ET. Mr Burman, who has lived in Paris for five decades, said that he perceived the first signs of the market developing slowly even in early ’90s or late ’80s. Although the market really took off in a big way in the last two-three years.“I remember when I came to India in 1989 my watercolours were sold at Mumbai’s Pundole Art Gallery for around Rs 4,000 and my oils between Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000. One feels it was a respectable price when the market was still underdeveloped,” he said.The two major factors which have helped the market to expand and balloon, Mr Burman said, is India’s economic growth and development. And the second is the entry and insatiable interest of collectors - both in India and Indian diaspora abroad. “Indian art is competing with world art now. Whether it’s south-east Asian works or Asian paintings from China and Japan. And, it doesn’t stop there. If there’s an exhibit of, let’s say, Indian and Italian art, there are buyers and collectors who will show interest in works from both the countries,” Mr Burman said.
With the art market boom, artists have come under tremendous pressure to deliver. This is sometimes tending to affect the quality of artists’ works. “I am not worried that prices are rising. But, artists have to be careful about not sacrificing the quality of their creations just for material benefit. Because it is the quality that buyers in India or abroad will look at. Not just the artist’s signature. The good thing is that with money coming in, artists have more incentive and drive to work. Many of our teachers produced a slew of works. But they hardly sold. This is depressing,” Mr Burman said.He felt that as more wealth is created both within and outside the country, the demand for artworks will burgeon. At the same time, works of some artists will become rare. Thus, collectors will look for these works even more. “Of course, Indian art, one expects, will also be promoted more over time. There are so many museums and culture centres in Europe. As people become more conscious of art, they will build such institutions in India too. Look at Kolkata, there is still not a single art museum. One learns that a museum is now planned in the future,” Mr Burman said.Some artists like Mr Burman, who are based abroad, are finding more acceptance there. Summing up, Mr Burman said good and bad exist together worldwide. But we have to paint with “thought, imagination and skill”.
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31-Dec-06
Paint job is not over yet
[December 31, 2006] MANOJ NAIR for The Economic Times
India is painting the world with it’s own colours. And the double coating came this year when three Indian artists broke the $1 million mark in September and another four followed them by December this year. At auctions in September, Sotheby’s sold $16.6 million of Indian art, more than double last year’s $8.2 million and compared with just $3.1 million in 2004. Christie’s and Sotheby’s took in a combined $69.7 million in the category this year, compared with $31.1 million last year. It is not just inside auction halls that Indian art is selling. The sale pitch is high on the world wide web too. SaffronArt.com, Indiatimes Art are some of the sites that are doing good business online. Within six minutes of its launch and with three knocks of the auctioneer’s hammer on December 16th in Mumbai, Indiatimes ART (www.art.indiatimes.com) sold all the three paintings up for auction for more than Rs 3.3 crore. Since the launch more than half a million visitors have visited the online art gallery with thousands of enquires from across the world from emerging and established artists, art collectors, art connoisseurs and art lovers. Commenting on the new initiative, Mr. Dinesh Wadhawan, Managing Director, Times Internet Ltd. said, “Indiatimes ART is the venture to watch out for as this will give a fillip to Indian ART by providing the right platform for emerging and established artists to showcase their works to the art fraternity across the globe by leveraging the net to get the right appreciation for their works. This endeavour holds a promise to take Indian ART to the next level and beyond.”
Every auction this year by Osian’s of the star collector Neville Tuli has met with unprecedented success. According to him, in the future it would be private parties and not the state that would come to preserve and bolster the Indian art mart. Adds Projjal Dutta, a former RJ and architect who, along with his Columbia university economics professor brother Prajit Dutta, owns the ArtsIndia Gallery in New York and Palo Alto, Ca: “For a five-year old establishment, our compounded annual growth has been 140%.” Nothing establishes the fact better than the art surge that the country’s economy is on a high. What’s more? Investors have set off at least four ‘art funds’ in which a curator buys and sells artworks instead of stocks in the only the last two years. November also saw the appearance of a pension fund for young artists. And to be in sync with the times this newspaper started an art index aggregating prices for works by 51 top artists. The impact has brought to fore hitherto unseen works of several generations of 20th-century and contemporary Indian artists, many of whom were barely known outside of India five years ago. According to the Wall Street Journal, these artists are generating interest among Western as well as Indian buyers, in part because of recent prohibitively high prices in contemporary Western art, which have sent collectors looking for more affordable areas. Says Yamini Mehta, Head of Modern and Contemporary Indian Art, Christie’s: “ At Christie’s we have consistently seen new buyers and bidders at every consecutive Indian art auction bidding at all different levels. We are now seeing interest developing amongst collectors from the West, Middle East, and Asia. There is certainly potential and depth in the market.”
The works of Indian artists now dominating the market have little in common with the Buddha sculptures or illustrations of the life of Krishna that are most associated with South Asian art. One top seller is Francis Newton Souza, a painter born in Goa who died in 2002. Many of his paintings, which often feature bold portraits with abstract, distorted elements, owe heavy debts to Picasso. Some of the landscapes of Ram Kumar, another top-selling artist, recall the work of Georges Braque. Subodh Gupta, Atul Dodiya and Sudarshan Shetty are some of the brightest young stars on the Indian art horizon. Christie’s Hong Kong held its Asian Contemporary Art Autumn sale on 26 November 2006, in which an exceptional selection of works by Indian and Pakistani artists in the sale realised HK$7,044,000/ US$915,720. Numerous world auction records were established, including that, Chitra Ganesh, Krishnaraj Chonat, N. Pushpamala, as well as Thukral and Tagra. This sale is the final of five auctions held this year that included contemporary art from India, that all together totalled an unprecedented US$42,210,800, concluding a record-breaking year for Indian contemporary art sales at Christie’s worldwide. Adds Mehta: “This very exciting and encompassing Asian Contemporary Art sale featured new and fresh perspectives on the contemporary art scene of India and Pakistan. Buyers for the works — many of whom were new to this collecting area — were truly international hailing from Italy, France, China, Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East. We are thrilled to see the market for works from the subcontinent maturing and expanding to a much wider and appreciative audience as shown by the number of artist records achieved.” Sotheby’s London auction has also been a rip roaring success. Says Sotheby’s Edward Gibbs, Head of Sale of the auction of the May auction: “We are delighted with the results of the sale which confirmed the underlying-strength of the market for modern and contemporary Indian paintings, a collecting category that has experienced remarkable growth in recent years.
The overall driver for this trend has been the growth of the Indian economy and a raised awareness of the important contribution of Indian artists in the 20th century. Today’s sale shows the market entering a new phase with evidence of a mounting appreciation and-demand for important works by the top artists from an increasingly informed, discerning and expanding group of collectors.” Adds Subodh Gupta of this new-found success: “This is a bright side of a history that has struggled to establish its identity. I think from here it will only climb up further. The good thing about this boom is that it is not just traditional works that are finding affirmation. Even the boldest experiments, if imaginative, have some kind of resonance.” Subodh was also one of the first Indian artist make collectors come back for more at the Art Basel show. It is not just that Indians are getting wealthier. They are also seeing more money in it. As for the West showing interest in Indian art was the complete lack of information. they knew very little about Indian artists except for its artifacts and heritage objects. Says British curator and creative consultant Caroline Young: “The reason why contemporary modern art from the subcontinent has now got the attention it deserved was earlier there was a total absence of information about artists and art in the West. There’s very little literature available on artists, even in India. I clearly remember an instance when I went to the National Gallery of Modern Art and was very impressed by the works of a particular artist but there are very little information available apart from the name of the work and the artist’s name. Even the internet offers little help.” Today, all the top magazines in the US and the Europe have articles, features and ads about Indian artists. The world is seeing both food for thought and money for future in Indian art.
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11-Nov-06
Indian art stock is on the rise
Delhi will have its own art fund similar to the Osian fund in Mumbai
Move over stock markets, Indian art is here. Having discovered a new potential, the Indian art has become one of the crucial instruments to drive investment.
After Osian’s art fund in Mumbai, Delhi is looking at drawing in the bucks with art funds being set up in the capital. Gaurav Karan, managing partner of Crayon Capital, which is all set to launch its Rs40 crore venture in the next fortnight, said: “It is a relatively new concept all over the world and more so in India. What we essentially plan to do is get investors to put in their money and buy artwork and based on their escalating market value, investors can reap the interests.”
In fact, Phillip Hoffman of the internationally fabled Fine Art Fund is also launching the India Fine Art Fund with Delhi-based businessman Purushottam starting with a capital of 20 million dollar.
According to a source in the company, “People have made a lot of money with real estate and stocks and shares and the risk appetite of investors have gone up. Art will be a new area to put in investors’ money.”
Crayon Capital has divided its artists in a diversified platform of three categories of masters, leading artists and emerging artists. From M F Husain, Tyeb Mehta to Ganesh Pyne, Arpita Singh as well as Anju Dodiya and Shibu Natesan at least 200 such artists’ works will be bought.
“This is also an effort to educate people. This way people get to know who these artists are and who is worth what. It’s an excellent way of making people aware of Indian art,” adds Karan.
A source from the Indian Fine Art Fund said, “This is just the beginning of investment in art. In future, we are looking at exploring opportunities where we will actually let investors own artwork depending on the money they put in.
In fact, we are also looking at the possibility of renting out high-priced paintings to corporates who look at options of changing the look of their offices every now and then. Art is a big field, and lots of possibilities can be explored.”
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10-Nov-06
Corporate honchos shine for an arty cause
What do Ratan Tata, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Naina Lal Kidwai, Malvinder Mohan Singh, Naveen Jindal, VN Dalmia and YC Deveshwar have in common? They are all business leaders most comfortable drawing up spreadsheets, but they have taken time off to pair up with artists — all for a noble cause.
The corporate initiative is a part of an endeavour to pair up more than 100 eminent personalities from different walks of life with artists such as Amitava Das, Krishen Khanna, Paresh Maity, Satish Gujaral, Shipra Bhattacharaya and Jayasri Burman to raise funds for the homeless and the elderly.
The effort is being co-ordinated by a non-governmental organisation called Khushii, chaired by cricket legend Kapil Dev.
“The cause of supporting old people and rag-pickers is one which is significant and this is why I agreed to be a part of this project,” Bharti Enterprises Founder Chairman and Group Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal told Hindustan Times.
While Hari Bhartia, Shobhana Bhartia, Gautam Thapar, Analjit Singh and Peter Punj have participated in the project from the corporate sector, the initiative has also roped in patrons like Bollywood stars Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, minister Praful Patel, actress Sharmila Tagore and deputy chairman of the planning commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, besides celebrity cardiologist Naresh Trehan for a stroke or two.
The 125-odd works of art created under the initia tive will be auctioned in the Capital on Friday at the British High Commission- er’s residence. The auction will be conducted by Ian McGinlay of Christie’s.
P Chidambaram’s creation with Anjolie Ela Menon is priced at Rs 20 lakh while Ratan Tata’s work with Laxman Shreshtha has an initial bid price of Rs 12 lakh. But Bachchan daughter Shweta Nanda’s piece and Tina Anil Ambani’s creation, both with Jogen Chowdhury, take the cake with price tags of Rs 25 lakh each.
“As each piece of art, co-signed by the patrons and the artist, has been given a base price, Khushii al ready has a neat Rs 3.5 crore in its kitty for the poor even after paying the artist 25 per cent of the successful bid.
"We feel humble to see how many eminent people have taken time from their busy schedules to step forward and give a helping hand,” said Vandana Luthra, founder and mentor of beauty and fitness firm VLCC, who is current ly president of Khushii.
Though the final amount that Khushii gets to raise from this project will depend on the actual bids, creators who have already offered primary bids will take their works home in case higher bids elude the auction.
Hindustan Times
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10-Oct-06
Yatra to launch second art fund
The first fund has appreciated 38 per cent in a year.
Buoyed by the success of its first art fund, which saw an appreciation of 38 per cent in value terms in about an year’s time, Yatra Art Fund is launching its second art fund next month.
The fund size of Yatra-2 would be bigger at Rs 75-100 crore compared with Yatra-1’s Rs 11 crore, raised in September 2005. The investment objective of the second fund also varies slightly from the first fund.
While the first fund invested in the works of masters, the mandate of Yatra-2 art fund is to invest in the works of established contemporary artists, said V Sanjay Kumar, trustee of Yatra Art Fund.
“We are looking at the next level of artists. But, we will buy only those works that have an established re-sale market,” he said.
There are only 3-4 art funds in the country, the most recent one being the Osian’s Art Fund, promoted by auction house Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art Pvt Ltd. Osian’s Art Fund had raised Rs 102 crore in August this year, becoming the largest Asian art fund.
The Yatra-2 fund, which would raise funds through invitation from high networth individuals (HNIs), would also look at select investment opportunities in Chinese art.
Sanjay Kumar, who is also the co-owner of Sakshi Gallery and Synergy Art Foundation, said Yatra-2 will be a four-year close ended fund. In the West, where art funds are very well established, the tenure is higher at 10 years.
Nipun Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Unitis Tower Wealth Advisors Pvt Ltd, which will find the prospective investors for the fund, said the minimum investment amount for the Yatra-2 is pegged at Rs 10 lakh. This is lower compared with its first fund, where the minimum investment by investors was set at Rs 20 lakh.
“We are trying to attract more investors. We are asking HNIs to allocate 2-5 per cent of their investible allocation into art,” Mehta said.
Though the 38 per cent returns given by the first fund in the 12-month period matched the returns in the stock markets, there would be periods in the future when the returns may become more conservative.
“Art as an asset class tend to grow along with the Indian economic growth. There was similar interest for Chinese art (coinciding with the Chinese economic growth),” he said, explaining the current boom.
According to him the organised art auction market in India is estimated at Rs 1,000 crore while the private auction industry would be similar in size if not bigger.
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18-Aug-06
Pricing the piece d’art
Uma Karve Chakranarayan for PUNE NEWSLINE.
HE’S NO longer the one with the jhola on shoulder or the kurta clad artist looking longingly at cars gliding by. He’s in fact a globe-trotter, the envy of a million other eyes as he commands lakhs for his every creative instinct. Yes, the image of an artist has undergone a drastic change today— all thanks to the appreciation in art prices. Tyeb Mehta, Souza, Raza and Hussain have brought Indian art some fantastic selling prices-both at home and abroad. But whether it’s a few thousands or a few lakhs and even crores, what is it that really gives a painting its price? Sushma Bahl, art consultant and curator points out that technical aspects, reputation, palette and of course, the narrative and imagery count enormously. Artist Arpana Caur known for her Indian theme paintings says, “Pricing means freedom form shackles. Though national and international markets and prices are at the back of my mind, when it comes to putting a price to my painting, the most important factor is the work I have put into it, not just the size.” While Caur sells 95 per cent of her work through galleries, artist Shanti Dave recognised for his figuratives leaves the complete pricing to the galleries. “Paintings are like my babies so I can’t price them. Let society pay me my worth,” says the painter and muralist. Pune’s senior artist Ravi Paranjape known for his watercolour landscapes however, sells most of his work through his office. “My pricing depends solely on the energy and the work put into it,” he says. While earlier, artists could have a different price abroad and another one in India, with the Internet making all accessible, most have one price. Paranjape adds, “When an artist begins exhibiting and pricing his work, he has prices that his seniors and contemporaries command at the back of his mind.” However, as Bahl observes, “It is alarming to note that many young artists have been pricing their work high thereby dissuading young collectors from buying it.”
On a personal level, senior artist, Satish Gujral acclaimed for his murals, sculptures, stresses that there are two different aspects of a creation, “One being the act of creation which is totally independent of its mundane considerations and the other being its pricing as a commodity—like all other commodities it is determined by the laws of demand and availability.” Auctions too play an important role in pricing paintings. Though international prices do not always affect the grassroots artist, the effect in some way percolates down. Aporajita Mukerjee, CEO of art portal www.artsacre.com feels that it’s not necessarily a signature that makes people buy a work, but quality that rules hands down in the pricing segment. Auctions apart, when it comes to settling on the price for a piece, prominence of the artist, critical acclaim, exhibitions in India and abroad, and scarcity make all the difference of a few thousands to lakhs. Dinesh Vazirani, director Saffronart explains, “If we are selling older works of artists, for example a Souza, his work from the 1950’s will command a greater price than perhaps his latest.” Agrees artist S Bahulkar who states, “The period of work determines a price. And every artist’s selling price is determined gradually, as his work gets appreciated.” But for art collector and businesswoman like Geetanjali Kirloskar, buying art is always from the heart. “I buy art only because I like it—not because of the name or the price. Invariably, it has turned out that we have made the right investment. Prices are not really relevant when it comes to choosing something good—you may get it at a high price or even a low one,” she sums up.
Article Courtesy: CITIES EXPRESS INDIA.
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17-Aug-06
Research on art history comes of age
Mandira Nayar for THE HINDU
New Delhi: The National Gallery of Modern Art here will soon not be the only place to see the vast canvas of contemporary art in the Capital. Though Jamia Millia Islamia is not venturing into the arena of acquiring "real" art, its Department of Fine Arts and Art Education is planning to start a National Resource Centre for Art that will give visitors and scholars a chance to understand the contribution of various artists in post-Independence India. The Centre -- planned as a one-stop destination for scholars -- will be developed by students enrolled for a new Masters level programme on History of Art, which will be introduced by the Department of Fine Arts and Art Education next year. "We don’t have a budget to acquire paintings,’’ says Mohammad Miyan, Head of the Department of Fine Arts at Jamia. "But we will electronically preserve paintings. We also hope to be able to get the writing on art. This resource centre will be able to give visitors an idea of how M.F. Husain contributed to contemporary art and what the art scene was before his arrival.’’ Becoming one of the first few universities in the country to look at art and its history so seriously and to build a resource centre, Jamia will not only concentrate on Indian art but also look at paintings electronically around the world. The idea is to fill in the gap on the art scene that exists in India in terms of research and documentation. While documentation of art in India is being done by various stakeholders, the research element in a comprehensive way has been missing. And with Indian art finally being recognised on international platforms, the Centre will come at the right time as it were. "We have already started writing to people asking them for permission. We have also appointed two well-known names in the art world as Professors Emeritus,’’ says Professor Miyan. The History of Art will look at the evolution of the modern movement of art in India. The course is expected to encourage research in this field. The idea is also to record the contribution of artists who are not so well known and students will be expected to conduct research on them as part of the course to build the Centre. Offering printmaking as a specialisation for the first time, the Department will introduce the course from next year. This course will be designed to cover all areas of printmaking, lithography, woodcut, etching and silk-screen printing.
Article Courtesy: THE HINDU.
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12-Aug-06
Concept and struggle - Jatin Das
Too much water has flown under the bridge,” says artist Jatin Das as we sit in his studio in Delhi. Das frets that we have to wrap up the interview in an hour or so — too short a time for this rendezvous — “a whole day would have been apt,” he says. Nevertheless, in between the frenzy of instructions to assistants for an upcoming show at Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi, Das says that “I am still struggling, still starting out as an artist.” It sounds contradictory if one looks back at the five decades of his life as an artist. When Das was 17 and studying biology, a return trip from Delhi to his hometown Mayaurbhanj in Orissa with an award for an inter-university youth painting competition from then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru nudged him into pursuing art and join the JJ School of Arts in Mumbai. At art school he adopted Michelangelo as his hero and would draw up to 300 sketches daily — each strengthening the line that was to become his forte over the decades. So when Das talks about still struggling as an artist, he clarifies that “I still struggle in concept,” whereas in the world today struggle refers purely to the monetary. “The real strength is while painting — to make it evolve,” he says, dislodging notions that his days of monetary struggle are also not over. He claims to grapple with both even after 49 years as an artist. “I have only one house to claim,” he says, “that too given on special concession to artists by the government.” He doesn’t sell much, he tells us, and whatever he does goes to the Jatin Das Centre of Arts that he has setup in Bhubaneshwar.
Das has worn many hats — and quite literally too as he’s fond of sporting a dazzling variety at art shows. As an artist, he has worked in several media — dabbling with watercolours, oils, acrylics, inks, sketches, graphics, sculpture and murals. “As one eats a variety of food for taste so do I for my art,” he reasons. The human predicament has never left Das’s works — the human form, usually devoid of clothing or adornment, clueless in its bareness of worldly activities, absorbed in itself — in anguish, pain, love and relationships. “Of no time and no place” says a poster from one of his exhibitions, defining the totality of his style. The line in his paintings is defined and strong in its discontinuity, where his brushstrokes tend to be breezier, though they’re no less powerful for that. The palette is dominated by primary colours. Over the last 20 years, Das has developed a passion for collecting hand fans, and has collected and documented over 5,000 pankahs, a majority from the Indian subcontinent. “It’s the largest collection of hand fans with anyone,” he says, while lighting a cigarette and pointing to a matchbox with, “I collect these too”. Indian artists and its art aficionados might feel it is one of the best times for Indian art, but for Das the current art scene suggests a dangerous trend. For him, “Art is still not a household thing where people will buy reproductions if they can’t afford the originals, and the common man doesn’t know much about our art or about artists,” he says. “The appreciation of art needs to evolve much more,” he sighs.
Article Courtesy: BUSINESS STANDARD. - Nanditta Chibber
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07-Aug-06
Case registered, moral police rush to seize art at gallery
After visitor’s complaint, obscenity charges pressed against artists Sanjeev Khandekar, Vaishali Narkar; told to cover work with black cloth
Mumbai: MUMBAI’s moral police had their way on Sunday evening at the Jehangir Art Gallery when they seized exhibits displayed by artists Sanjeev Khandekar and Vaishali Narkar in an exhibition titled ‘Tits, Clits n Elephant Dicks’. Acting on a complaint filed by a visitor, Pushpa Vitula, the Colaba policemen had yesterday registered a case against the two artists for ‘‘exhibiting obscene paintings and sculptures’’. ‘‘Soon after the exhibition opened at 11:30 am today, the police told us to cover all the exhibits with black cloth or remove them. We decided to cover the exhibits,’’ said Khandekar. In the evening, when the exhibition ended, the police who had spent the whole day at the gallery ensuring that the exhibits remained covered, seized the paintings and sculptures. ‘‘We have registered a case of obscenity, and are accordingly seizing the exhibits in a legal manner. We have also captured the exhibits on video, which will be produced as evidence in court,’’ said police inspector Deepak Dhole of the Colaba police station.
‘‘It is a work of art. The Jehangir Art Gallery has allowed us to put up the exhibition, and it has been on display for the last eight days. Many people have viewed the exhibition and appreciated it. I don’t know why the police are doing this. My lawyer will challenge all the charges in court,’’ said Khandekar. Pushpa Vitula, who introduced herself as a psychologist, was also present at the exhibition on Sunday evening, arguing with the police that they should capture the exhibits on camera with Khandekar in the frame along with his art. ‘‘I agree that this may be art. But there is art that comes from heaven, and then there is art that comes from hell. It’s obscene to even utter the title of the exhibition,’’ said Vitula. She claimed that she had not filed charges, and had called the police to view the exhibits and decide for themselves. ‘‘This is ridiculous. We have an FIR signed by her. She is very much the complainant in the case,’’ refuted Dhole.
OTHER ARTISTS SAY
Akbar Padamsee, painter: What the police have done is contempt of court. When an obscenity case was filed against me, the high court passed an order that the police could not enter and defile a gallery or confiscate any material from it.
Jehangir Jani, sculptor: Personally, I don’t agree with some of the points that the show brings up but I am in favour of freedom of expression. What the police have done clamps down on this.
Hema Upadhyay, mixed media artist: This is happening because there is no awareness or openmindedness about Indian contemporary art. If they are banning this show, what about Khajuraho? And cyber sex shops that are accessible to millions?
Article Courtesy: CITIES EXPRESSINDIA.
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20-Jun-06
Auction houses promote emerging artists
By Uma Nair ,Indo-Asian News Service Mumbai, June 20 (IANS)
In what is being seen as a healthy trend, renowned auction houses are increasingly promoting emerging talent. "In the olden days, artists had to achieve critical acclaim and be collected and written and talked about before they could compete in the auction arena," points out Shanti Dave, who is getting ready for a well awaited retrospective in Delhi. A look at Christie’s Hong Kong Asian art sale reveals how much the times have changed. Christie’s, which in the past did not believe in arching themselves out for young artists, seems to have a change of heart in terms of attitudes. In 2000, one remembers Sotheby’s specialist Robin Dean saying somewhat categorically: "I don’t think an auction is a place where an artist’s career should be launched. That is something that is the sole prerogative of the commercial gallery system which should nurture the evolution and motivate further progress." Dean’s viewpoint now seems to have changed somewhat with both auction houses now scouring the nation for young and emerging talent. The thought that only well established artists can get record prices in the salesroom is also getting washed away with the new records that were set by names like Atul Dodiya, Anju Dodiya, Subodh Gupta, Jitish Kallat and Hema Upadhyay, to name just a few. Says Abhay Sardesai of Art India: "Online art has actually given a fillip, an extra edge, as it provides a unique opportunity for emerging artists. "Normally, the space for showing your work is limited. There weren’t too many galleries around, and it was difficult for young artists to hold art exhibitions. This is why the emerging artists are enjoying their place in the auctions," he adds. Why is this market for emerging artists taking off now? According to Saffronart director Dinesh Vazirani: "The rules of the game are changing. The pool of buyers is also interesting and there are a lot of young buyers and collectors now. What is interesting is that there are also middle class buyers who want to invest in art." Obviously, it is the alchemy of a newly thriving middle class hungry to express pride in its cultural heritage - and market visibility - fuelled by gallery and museum shows and auction sales, in the West as well as India, that have helped sales for young and emerging artists also. Art auctions have become the most visible barometer for gauging the measure of success. It is the most effective measure for defining a work’s monetary and aesthetic value. "Auctions attract buyers of a different calibre from those who go to commercial galleries," says a collector who wishes to remain anonymous. "Investing in works by young and emerging artists can be challenging because they must withstand the test of time. Collecting the works of young and emerging artists and supporting them over a period can also be rewarding," adds the collector.
Indo-Asian News Service
Speacial Thanks to Mrs Uma Nair.
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