It is December and all roads in Chennai lead to sabha halls where Carnatic music rasikas and dance afficianados celebrate the Tamil month with typical 'margazhi' fervor. It's also time for cricket test matches in India and with 2008 almost closing in there is a certain laid-back attitude all around. The celebration however in London at the Serpentine Gallery in London is of a different kind: The theme is contemporary Indian art at the 'India Highway' exhibit that runs till 22nd February 2009 near Hyde Park.
Among artists participating are Maqbool Fida Husain with his acrylic-on-canvas: The Rape of India; Jitish Kallat with his Cenotaph (A Deed of Transfer) 2007-20 Lenticular prints; and Bose Krishnamachari with his installation - Ghost / Transmemoir 2006-08 with 108 used tiffins, LCD monitors, amplifiers, DVD players, headphones, cables, scaffolding and wood. Mumbai residents - Kallat and Krishnamachari - have been exploring the city's restless nature and its vibrant psyche through their work and recent traumatic events wouldn't have added to the their sense of cheer or that of the city's.
In the art world buyers, investors, gallery owners have been holding back their bets - a kind of wait-and-watch attitude - for the past few months, and the phenomenon seems global. No one foresees an immediate change either in art fortunes. In early December celebrity collectors at the art fair - Art Basel Miami Beach (a division of MCH Swiss Exhibition (Holding) Ltd. - came and saw but did not buy. At an American art auction in New York, committed buyers were pulling back, though mercifully, some pieces were bought thanks to their impeccable provenances.
At Christie's auction in late November in Hong Kong, a couple of Indonesian and Chinese artists performed admirably in terms of their sales with creations beating world records. Indian artist Subodh Gupta again came out shining with his "Untitled" 2005 paintings of pots and pans - his new signature style - that an American dealer picked up for almost half-a-million American dollars.
At Indian auctioneer Saffronart's December sale of contemporary Indian art familiar names such as Subodh Gupta, Akbar Padamsee and Jagdish Swaminathan sold well in spite of an anemic buying environment. With online bidding getting popular there were 740 registered bidders from 35 countries for this sale but final results did not bear fruit with corresponding sales.
Interestingly, the world economic slowdown did not seem to affect sales of antique Chinese ceramics and works of art such as an Imperial Pink-Ground Famille Rose Vase from the Qianlong Period (1736-1795) that sold for US$ 6.88 million or Kashmir sapphires and Burma rubies that sold for US$1.2 million each at the Hong Kong auction.
A New York-based trend writer, Raj Rangarajan reports on the art market and has contributed to publications in the United States, Canada, Australia and India.
talktoretailplus@yahoo.com
RAJ S RANGARAJAN
No comments:
Post a Comment