Asia Times Online - The best news coverage from South Asia

South Asia

Indian art paints a global picture
By Indrajit Basu

KOLKATA - Though it probably won't show up in any export extravaganzas or in the governing Bharatiya Janata Party's latest "India Shining" election handouts, Indian contemporary art is increasingly painting itself in a canvas of global colors. From Singapore to Hong Kong, London and Germany via the Middle East to New York, the art landscape is dotted with rising demand for contemporary Indian art that, damning the recessionary trends in the some global markets, is fetching record prices and sending dealers into a tizzy.

At the March 24 auction at Sotheby's in New York, for instance, a painting called Mystic Repast by Francis Newton Souza, whom British newspaper The Guardian termed as "India's most important, and famous, modern artist", fetched the painter's highest-ever auction price. "The F N Souza painting sold for $130,000 [$153,600 including the buyer's premium], which is a world-record figure of the artist's works in any auction," said Anuradha G Mazumdar of Sotheby's.

However, Souza's record pales next to what a triptych (a set of three paintings hinged together on panels) by India's Gujarat-born artist Tyeb Mehta - a self-confessed loner and highly private person - fetched at the September 2002 Christie's auction in New York. Titled Celebration, this set of paintings, owned by one of India's leading media groups, fetched $317,500 (Rs13.8 million) - a record for any contemporary Indian piece of art sold. Of course, two months later India's most publicized contemporary artist, M F Husain, dislodged his friend Mehta from this honor when his work was sold to a non-resident Indian - based in the US - for Rs20 million (about $435,000), the highest price paid so far for an Indian painting; that sale has another parameter, however, as it was a private sale and was not conducted through an auction.

Indeed, for the past few years Indian contemporary art seems to be dabbling in new hues as modernity has started overshadowing rarity at every overseas auction involving Indian art. Over the past three years India's modern art has outstripped ancient paintings and sculptures in terms of price bids at international sales at Sotheby's and Christie's. "Generally, the average prices of Indian [and South Asian] sculpted pieces range between $5,000 to $60,000," said an art circle source. "Odd sculpture can fetch higher amounts, but that's more of an exception than a rule. Over the past four years, while sculpture prices may have doubled, works of progressive artist groups led by the likes of Husain and Souza have jumped by six to eight times."

Artists whose works fire these auctions are Tyeb Mehta, Ram Kumar, Husain, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Ganesh Pyne, Souza, Akbar Padamsee, J Swaminathan, B Prabha and Anjolie Ela Menon, Jamini Roy, K K Hebbar, N S Bendre and George Keyt, art dealers said. Furthermore, works from several other artists, such as Somnath Hore, A Ramachandran, Laxma Goud and Arpita Singh, extend "excellent opportunities", sometimes at prices "far cheaper" than the going rate, sources add. Among these, the progressives who form the upper crust of contemporary art embrace names like Husain, Souza, Gaitonde, Raza, Padamse and Tyeb Mehta.

Moreover, "there is an increasing number of buyers entering Indian art auction, and as a result of it, there is an increase in terms of average price that is obtained per painting, as well as a rise in the total number of works that are offered per year on the global auction markets", said an official from Christie's in New York. For instance, the sale at Christie's on March 25, when 36 lots of "20th Century Indian painting" were put up for auction fetched a total of $1.15 million, compared to its sale last September (when 77 lots were put up), which fetched about $1.8 million. "Clearly there is an increase in average lot prices, which has gone up from $26,500 in September '03 to just under $32,000 in March," said Christie's.

Sotheby's figures regarding Indian art are equally interesting. Its March sale contained 51 lots of modern art, of which 37 were sold. The total for these lots, including one "under negotiation", came to roughly $780,000. "This is roughly three times the total of modern Indian art sold in the September 2003 sale, which made around $250,000," said Robin Dean, the director of Indian and Southeast Asian art at Sotheby's. "Our March 24 sale made $3.1 million in total, which is almost double the March sale last year, which made roughly $1.6 million. The important feature of the sale is that it shows that clients are prepared to spend record figures on works of art of exceptional quality with good provenance."

There is little doubt then that "Indian contemporary art is emerging as the fastest growing category in Asian art", said Mazumdar of Sotheby's, and it is why global auction houses are stepping up their association with this genre. For the first time ever Sotheby's introduced a segment on Indian contemporary art in its March 2004 auction of "Indian and Southeast Asian Art" in New York. Christie's representatives, too, have said, "given the market potential, we are going to have three sales of 20th century Indian art from now on". Aside from its usual two auctions in New York in March and September, another auction will be held in Hong Kong in April, "which, in this year - April 25 - will offer exceptional Indian pictures," according to Christie's in Hong Kong.

So, what is it about Indian contemporary art that has suddenly attracted global appreciation? Art expert Suneet Chopra has a profound explanation. "The contemporary vision of our [Indian artists'] artistic expression is the basic reason for it doing so well in the world. It is developed out of the challenge of an enslaved country [referring to the days when India was under the British rule] fighting the most powerful empire [the British] in the world at the time and succeeding in freeing itself," he said.

But auctioneers like Sotheby's and Christie's boil it down to a much simpler fact: the increased awareness of Indian artists. "Over the last few years we have had more and more galleries [in New York and around the world] displaying contemporary Indian art," said Mazumdar. Reports suggest that about five galleries dealing in Indian contemporary paintings have sprung up in New York alone in recent years, and between three and four are spread among cities like London and Singapore. Each of these outfits churns out yearly sales of between $1 million and $2.5 million, and "these places, through their business, are also helping to increase awareness, and on top of that, we have had museum shows dedicated to Indian art", Mazumdar said.

The other reason for Indian art's proliferation is that many Indian, as well as international collectors, triggered by the awareness of Indian artists, have turned strategic. "They have found Indian art good in quality, aesthetics and available at a reasonable price," said Mazumdar, adding that at Sotheby's, "this [Indian contemporary art] is a whole new category, which is being priced reasonably".

However, perhaps the most important drivers of the rising demand are non-resident Indians (NRIs). And art columnist Nitin Bhaiya feels that NRIs have been forcefully driven to the art market by what he calls the "Greenspan effect". The lowering of interest rates pioneered by US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has resulted in rock bottom interest rates, not only in the US economy, but also elsewhere globally, and including India. NRIs, therefore, in their pursuit to derive better returns on their money, have turned to investing in Indian art more seriously than ever before, because returns on Indian contemporary art are certainly much more than the meager 1.5 percent Greenspan's almost deflationary regime offers, Bhaiya said.

The rising demand in Indian contemporary art in large global markets is also triggering interesting ripple effects among relatively smaller ones. According to auctioneer Patrick Bowring, around 15 percent of the buyers at any single auction of Indian art today are totally international, and aside from the usual buyers from countries like the US and the UK, Indian contemporary art is now being lapped by buyers from France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia and Canada. Commenting on the proliferation of Indian contemporary art in the global markets, sources said that the world's biggest collection of Husain and Ganesh Pyne canvases could be found in Dubai in the Middle East. German collectors, they add, are particularly fond of artists like Suvaprasanna, Sunil Das, Sunil De, Manu Parekh, Jogen Chowdhury, Ganesh Haloi and Sanat Kar; while Oriental and Islamic art works from Indian artists are gradually surfacing at auctions in the Netherlands.

Despite the spectacular rise in prices for works by some artists - like Husain, whose work has leapfrogged about six times in the past four years, and Souza, whose prices rose by about eight times - investment experts still believe that Indian contemporary art has a long way to go. "I believe that a key sideshow of the evolution of India as an economic power will be that the prices of Indian contemporary art will rise, and rise sharply over the next decade[s]," said investment and foreign exchange guru Jamal Mecklai . "While there will, of course, be a huge number of dogs [as with any other investment], the real winners will increase in value by easily 20 to 30 times over the next 10 or 15 years."

Admittedly, vis-a-vis comparable markets in Asia, the prices of contemporary Indian art are still low. For instance, the average price of modern Indian paintings, according to Bowring, are still hovering in the region of $50,000-$70,000 globally (barring Husain's, Mehta's and Souza's, which have touched the price bracket of $150,000), while Chinese and Indonesian paintings have already touched average prices of $400,000.

Therefore, said Bhaiya, what will propel Indian contemporary art is a simple fact: it is highly undervalued, akin to the Indian stock markets in the early 1980s. And, said Mecklai, "Indian contemporary art could be the country's next Infosys."

(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)

Apr 1, 2004

No material from Asia Times Online may be republished in any form without written permission.

Privacy and Legal Policies