Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Headlines

INDIA: After Slowdown, Art Market Picking Up

Sujoy Dhar

KOLKATA, India, Apr 3 2010 (IPS) - After sitting out the slowdown in the art market until last year, Ambica Beri, owner of an upscale art gallery here in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, is cautiously hosting shows again this year.

The positive signs that the market is indeed recovering are so far holding up, say Beri and other arts professionals.

There was good attendance and sales from the second India Art Summit in August 2009 and the Spring Online Auction held in March by Saffronart, the world’s largest online fine-art auction house that operates from India’s financial hub Mumbai.

Collectors returned to the market at the India Art Summit in the capital New Delhi, although there were fewer exhibitions and art works were being sold at prices lower than before, points out Beri, whose Gallery Sanskriti is known for hosting some of the biggest names in Indian art.

“There is a price correction after the recession, but we are okay with it,” she explained, referring to the global economic slowdown in 2007 and 2008. This affected the Indian market into mid-2009, which steadied later with the return of real art lovers hoping to shop cheap.

“We are selling and there are visitors in the gallery and queries. I’m hosting more exhibitions now this year one after another,” Beri said during a recent exhibition of serigraphs by famous painter and lithographer Sakti Burman.

The Indian Art Summit in 2009, with the world’s fourth oldest auction house Sotheby’s, attracted 54 galleries and auction houses worldwide. It displayed artworks worth more than 400 million rupees (8.9 million U.S. dollars).

“With 40,000 visitors and over half of the artworks on display sold, India Art Summit 2009 was one of most successful second editions of an art fair anywhere in the world,” says Sunil Gautam, managing director of the summit.

For its part, Saffronart sold 75 percent of its lots for 21 crores rupees (4.6 million U.S. dollars) at the Spring Online Auction.

In addition, there was competitive bidding in majority of the lots. The selling prices of 60 percent of these exceeded their high estimates, reaffirming collectors’ demand for art of outstanding quality and provenance.

Among the sold artworks were those by contemporary painter Akbar Padamsee’s 1953 portrait entitled ‘Prophet’ and iconic painter M F Husain’s circa-1970s ‘Untitled’.

‘Prophet’ fetched more than thrice its higher estimate with a winning bid of 10.25 million rupees (230,000 dollars). ‘Untitled’ crossed the 20 million- rupee (448,000 dollars) mark with a high estimate of 10.2 million rupees (228,000 dollars).

The auction’s strong reception affirms the renewed confidence of India’s growing art collectors, explains Dinesh Vazirani, chief executive officer and co-founder of Saffronart.

While art prices have fallen by 30 to 50 percent with the recession, depending on the genre, artist and the work, Varizani says, “this, in turn, has made works by some of the most important Indian modernists, more affordable.” There seems to be a greater focus on the art and the artists, rather than the prices, he explains.

In recent years, works by Indian modernists like Tyeb Mehta, who died last year, had fetched up to 2 million dollars in overseas auctions.

There was also keen interest by collectors in the works of contemporary artists including Shibu Natesan, Sudarshan Shetty and Rajesh Ram, adds Vazirani. But some say that while art prices have indeed come down, this is not all due to a drop in demand due to the global recession.

Certainly, “art prices have either come down or stayed the same”, but it is inaccurate to generalise about a depreciation in art pieces, says Peter Nagy of New Delhi’s Gallery Nature Morte, a partner of Bose Pacia gallery of New York and Kolkata.

Aditya Basak, one of the well-known Indian modernists based in Kolkata, says that “though Kolkata artists have not reduced prices much, some of them indeed sold at 25 percent less value.”

But Basak says art galleries suffered during the recession because of their upkeep costs and not so much because of low demand. Direct buying by collectors of works from artists also peaked, adding to the galleries’ woes.

Looking ahead, Nagy says, collectors want to buy known artists but they want good deals on their purchases too.

Meantime, to contribute to the quality of the Indian art scene and market, several efforts are underway to provide creative opportunities for more artists. Private companies like leading retail finance company Magma Fincorp Ltd are offering scholarships to “needy young talents in creative arts and holding workshops under the guidance of famous painters”, said Kaushik Sinha, the company’s communication head.

The firm held a painters’ workshop here in March to promote young talents’ work.