Art mart gets bigger

The Rs-15 billion domestic art market is pegged to grow around 35 per cent annually,
writes Soudhriti Bhabani 

THE Indian art scenario this year has been through both good and bad. Great demand, great works, but on the other side, darker forces trying to mar artistic creativity. For sometime, the buzz around the art capitals around the world has been Asian art — Chinese and Indian, inviting astronomical prices. Unfortunately, in the face of growing fundamentalism, art, too, becomes a victim of intolerance sometimes. In August, a group of Hindu activists, under the banner of Ram Sena, vandalised an exhibition in Delhi, which showcased works by contemporary Indian art’s greatest exponent, Maqbool Fida Husain. The venue where ‘Husain Art Summit’ was organised by Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat) saw violent demonstrations too. Husain is living in exile, being forced to leave the country, after his work was slammed as vulgar and disrespectful to Indian sensibilities by some Hindu fundamentalist groups.

"It was a politicised act of a particular section of people who ransacked the exhibition tent. They neither came to protest the artworks of Husain nor were they sure about the religious sentiment that was hurt due to the artist’s presentation and so-called nudity," says well-known painter Suvaprasanna of Kolkata.

According to reports, just a couple of months before the Delhi protest, a few supporters of the Indian American Intellectual Forum (IAIF) staged a two-hour protest in New York in front of the leading art auction house Christie’s, shouting slogans: ‘Shame, shame, M. F. Husain’ and ‘Boycott Christie’s!’ etc.

Interestingly, at least 12 of Husain’s paintings were auctioned in the event where the theme was South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art.

"In February this year, I went to Dubai to attend a programme organised by a Jaipur-based art collector. Husain, along with a few selected Indian artists, was also invited to the event and he was supposed to be felicitated there. But suddenly we heard that a section of people started sending e-mails to the organisers protesting against Husain’s paintings," recalls Suvaprasanna.

Later, on request of Husain himself, the public felicitation programme was cancelled and was held at a private party.

Meanwhile, condemning the terror attack in Mumbai, Husain held an exhibition on contemporary Indian art at a gallery in London recently, calling it "Rape of India". In an interview, Husain said: "I will do a set of paintings on this tragedy and exhibit in Taj, and the proceeds will go to workers who lost their lives. We are not politicians. We can express through our art."

Talking about the Taj hotel, the militant attack not only killed innocent people but also damaged a number of valuable artworks, including three of Husain’s paintings, sculptures, photographs, priceless chandeliers and business books signed by eminent persons.

The passion for collecting artworks by this iconic hotel started with the founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, who is said to have shopped for them in different parts of the world such as London, D`FCsseldorf, Berlin and Paris to furbish his hotel which opened in 1903. Chola bronzes, Belgian chandeliers, antique chests, Baccarat crystal, ancient palanquins, sacred wooden icons, hand-woven carpets, a 10-foot (three metre) high metal "tree of life" sculpture, all found a home in the sprawling hotel. Today, though restoration of artworks is becoming high-tech, many doubt whether all of them can ever be restored to their former glory.

One of the country’s finest artists, who introduced modernism to Indian art, Paritosh Sen, died in October in Kolkata. He was 90.`A0Born in Dhaka in undivided India, Sen was considered one of the founders of the contemporary Indian art movement. He was a founder member of the Calcutta Group, an art movement established in 1942 that played a significant role in the birth of Indian modern art.

Sen was fascinated by the world of nature, colour and movement and fled home to join the Madras Art School headed by Devi Prosad Roy Chowdhury after completing his school. He left for Europe in 1949. In Paris, he attended various art colleges of repute. A meeting with Picasso left a deep impression on him. In his illustrious career, Sen was awarded the French Fellowship for Designing and Typeface, and a year later was a recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship.

After a long hiatus, Shakila, the homemaker-collage artist, showed her work at CIMA Art Gallery, Kolkata, this year. Shakila, a mother of three, hails from a West Bengal village and is completely self-taught. She started with torn newspaper and magazine pages to give vent to her imagination. One of the foremost avant-garde artists in collage-art today, her latest creations were bigger in dimension and more diversified in theme as if she herself was examining contemporary issues like women in distress, violence and conflict more consciously.

With the buoyant expansion of the domestic art market and international demand, many galleries jumped in the bandwagon to expand their presence. Artists and art galleries from India and abroad gathered at the first ever International Art Fair, India Art Summit, 2008, in New Delhi in August.

Altogether 35 galleries, including three international galleries from the UK — Rob Dean Art Gallery, Art 18/21 Gallery and Emerging World Art Gallery — participated in the summit. Paintings of noted artists like Anjolie Ela Menon, S.H.Raza, F.N.Souza and Jogen Chowdhury were showcased in the exhibition. More than 280 artworks worth nearly Rs 10 crore were sold.

"It’s true that today modern Indian art is getting more and more international recognition. People are interested in our paintings and are buying too. But, I concede there’s still a huge difference between the European and Indian art as far as popularity is concerned," says Suvaprasanna.

"Almost 95 per cent of those who buy our paintings abroad are NRIs. They either buy them for their own interest or they sell them off to the foreign nationals in that particular country. "For the foreigners, it’s also a lucrative proposition as they can get all good Indian paintings at legitimate costs — without spending extra currency on courier, packing and other additional things".

The domestic art market is said to be around Rs 15 billion and it is pegged to grow around 30-35 per cent annually. Indian art market is also up by 48 per cent in the last decade turning it into the fourth most happening art market in the world. The auction market for Indian art alone was worth $150 million last year, up from $52 million the year before.

But the success of Indian art notwithstanding, it is not a picture-perfect situation in times of`A0economic meltdown. As the global markets see a recession, the sale of various artworks has also seen a significant fall recently.

"The art market took a giant leap due to the robust economy in the first few months of the 2008 calendar year. The price of Indian paintings had skyrocketed during that time. But, now it has been decreasing and the price of good paintings have fallen drastically," informs Suvaprasanna. "It’s a tough time not only for the contemporary Indian artists but it’s a universal problem for all the practitioners of fine arts," he adds.

Meanwhile, on the brighter side, photographs have been recognised as ‘art’ in the recent years. Art-collectors have woken up to the potential of images of the camera and exhibitions solely on photographs have become increasingly popular. Mumbai-based Saffornart’s winter online auction saw record prices for works by stalwarts Dayanita Singh, Raghu Rai, etc attracting prices in lakhs and as if to prove their popularity, 20 of the 26 photographs offered were scooped up in no time. — TWF

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