By Raj S. Rangarajan
April 2013
Left: M. F. Husain, Lighting Horses, ca. 1979,
oil on canvas. Collection of Sri and Harsha Reddy.
(Image courtesy Peabody
Essex Museum)
The writer interviewed a curator, collectors,
gallery owners, auctioneers, and artists in New York, Mumbai, and Bangalore to
gauge what drives South Asian art and artists.
Bangalore-based Chinni Rajputana is passionate
about collecting art, but is not too happy about the current state of the South
Asian art market. In recent years the artists that she loves to own are not
being shown at galleries or auctions. Shandilya Shankar, a New York venture
capitalist who likes to turn a quick buck on contemporary Indian paintings, is
not happy with the market, either. He feels only the best known names—a Husain
or a Tyeb Mehta or a Souza—are fetching demand, making the market quite narrow.
Over the past four years, the South Asian art
market has been on a rollercoaster ride. Tyeb Mehta’s Untitled (Figures with
Bull Head), sold in March 2012 for $1.8 million, quite below expectations.
In September 2010, La Terre, 1985, an acrylic by Raza sold for merely
$1.93 million, below its estimated value of $2.5 million. Using another
parameter, in March 2012, of 124 lots offered at Christie’s sale of South Asian
modern and contemporary art, only 69 percent got sold. At Sotheby’s across
town, in the same category, only 57 percent were sold.
Those were the downers, but as with any roller-coaster
ride, there were the ups, too. Mehta’s diptych, Bulls, sold in 2012 at
$2.8 million while Syed Raza’s Saurashtra went for $ 3.24 million, also
last year.
Last September one 2nd/3rd century Gandhara sold
for a whopping $1.25 million. Was it really worth the price for the “anonymous”
buyer or institution that picked up this piece? Sandhya Jain-Patel, specialist
for Indian and Southeast Asian Art at Christie’s New York, had then commented,
“Top lots, especially sculptures from Gandhara, Nepal, and Tibet were underbid
and were bought both by seasoned buyers and first-timers.”
Underbid or underpriced? Was it a market
correction? Or, was there more to this aberration?
Depending on who you talk to in the industry, two
distinct and contrasting scenarios are emerging.
Is
art simply a speculative business?
The volatility and unpredictability in the art
market in general and the South Asian one in particular raises several
questions. Why indeed are some works fetching prices that defy logic? What are
buyers of such art looking for? A sense of joy or pride of ownership or is it
sound investment value for the work? And if it is not investment value, then
what precisely is propping up such a price tag? Or, is it also perhaps the
legend or hype that is created around the work and the artist?
Is art and the promotion of art simply the art of
business and marketing? One would imagine so, considering the millions of
dollars being spent all over the world on pricey catalogues, promos, and
exhibitions. These days everything is a commodity—an item to be well-packaged,
well-marketed, and sold. The art aspect or intrinsic value of the artist’s
message or opinions and the artist’s skills do not seem germane any more. Has
merchandizing taken over from art?
In spite of the dips and highs of the stock
market and the anemic nature of today’s sputtering economy, art as a commodity
seems to be doing well. There are big bucks to be made, and with the right
promoters, artists such as Husain or Tyeb Mehta or Souza continue to draw greater
attention—more so after their passing.
Tyeb Mehta, Sequence, 1981, oil
on canvas. Peabody Essex Museum, gift of the Chester and Davida Herwitz
Collection. © The Estate of Tyeb Mehta. (Image courtesy Peabody Essex Museum,
photograph by Walter Silver.)
“Indian art is so popular now that several
Americans and Europeans with market knowledge of their artists take special
trips to other parts of the world to attend public auctions since art is
considered a wise investment”, says Deepak Talwar, owner of Talwar Gallery, New
York.
While price is one benchmark to evaluate an
artist, it is not the only one.
Provenance (the history, time, and circumstances
surrounding the creation of the art) has always been equally important. Quite
often, “collector” groups attend private sales that are not reported publicly;
neither are prices disclosed. The art world has gotten larger globally with a
wider perspective and reach and continues to grow.
The
art collector is a different breed
Talwar draws a distinction between “buying” and
“collecting” art. There are several buyers of art with money but it is only the
discerning art-literate who is a collector. Today’s buyers of South Asian art
are more guarded in their purchases, he observes. His advice: read about the
artists, their styles and motivations; inform yourself about the origin and
background of a piece before buying it.
Persons of Indian origin, not necessarily those
based in India, continue to be a driving force in promoting Indian artists’
creations in India. Many bidders at public art auctions are knowledgeable about
provenance and prices and could go toe-to-toe with specialists whose job it is
to study and evaluate the market.
Where is the Indian art market headed? Dinesh
Vazirani, co-owner of the online auction house Saffronart, foresees a positive
movement in the sales of contemporary South Asian art: “[The market] is already
beginning to regain momentum: we are beginning to see a slow and steady
development in the infrastructure, galleries, museums, as well as more support
from the public and private sectors.”
Currently on view at the Peabody Essex Museum in
Salem, Massachusetts, is an exhibition titled Midnight to the Boom: Painting
in India after Independence, showcasing the work of three generations of
Indian painters. The ups and downs of the market are an inherent part of the
business, feels Trevor Smith, Curator of Contemporary Art at the museum, also
known as PEM: “Any market in which there is no uncertainty is by definition not
a market.”
Smith adds, “Markets evolve and taste changes.
There is an incredible diversity of art and artists in South Asia. Many younger
artists have made incredible inroads into international markets and the broader
critical consciousness.”
Antiques,
Bronzes, and Miniatures
Fluctuations in the prices of modern and
contemporary Indian art have led buyers to invest in another significant art
tradition—miniatures. “Many people want to invest in [contemporary art], but
the explosive rise in prices resulted in the unsustainability of these prices
when people wanted to sell. Thus people have started looking at other
categories including miniatures as an investment where the rise is slow, steady
and sustainable. Of course, even here quality, condition and period is of vital
importance,” says Maher Dadha, Chairman and Managing Director, Bid &
Hammer, fine art auctioneers in Bangalore.
Vazirani agrees: “We have been seeing the demand for antiquities and miniature paintings rising in India and there is great room for growth. However, miniatures have differing markets in India and outside due to the export regulations of the Government of India.”
Bronzes, another important tradition of Indian art, remain confined to museums and institutions because they’re too expensive for individual collectors, says Maher Dadha. “Because some of the older bronzes are very expensive and not perhaps as liquid as other works, individual bidders cannot afford them, and it is the museums, institutions, and corporate houses that can be convinced more easily to buy these bronzes.”
Bikash Bhattacharjee, The
Lady with the Gas Cylinder, 1986, oil on canvas. Peabody Essex Museum, gift
of the Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection. © The Estate of Bikash
Bhattacharjee. (Image courtesy Peabody Essex Museum, photograph by Walter
Silver.)
In India, purchases of contemporary art, either
as adornment for their own personal spaces or as investment, seem to be de
rigueur among the wealthy.
The Mumbai-based artist couple Atul and Anju
Dodiya have had exemplary successes. Notwithstanding their success, the
vagaries of the art market must have some impact on their creative process. Did
consideration of the market ever affect the quality of their work and
motivation?
Anju, known for her artistic versatility at
varied levels, warms up: “Creativity and the market are two separate things.
When one is alone in the studio, facing the painterly problem, one cannot
afford to be distracted or even motivated by the market. I have to remain
focused and concentrated. That has always been my process.”
As the response to the Dodiyas shows, the Indian
art collector and buyer clearly have art on their shopping list. Admittedly the
fluctuations in the market have not pleased many investors. But ultimately,
with patience and informed investment, the Rajputanas and the Shankars could
build up an enviable collection that could offer them both satisfaction and
value.
“Art has no timeline; beautiful works of art are
timeless—to be treasured no matter when they were created. We collect both
contemporary art and antiques: it is our heritage, it belongs to all of us. Sri
and I are just temporary custodians,” says Harsha Reddy, who with his wife Sri,
has been a longtime collector.
Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance,
covering trend stories on art, books, and films.
