A Look Back at 2007

The past year was another remarkable one for Indian contemporary art on the global scene—the market remained strong as several auctions attested, and Indian artists made headlines internationally. Here is a monthly review of some of the news and events that were generated during the last twelve months. Let’s hope 2008 will continue to be great for everything Indian!

January:
The auction market for Indian art alone was worth $150 million in 2006, up from $52 million the year before, according to Sonal Singh, director of Bodhi Art, which is based in New Delhi and also has galleries in Mumbai, New York, and Singapore.
21st – Three legendary Indian artists teamed up for a three-day show, their masterstrokes a call for world peace. S.H. Raza, M.F. Husain and Satish Gujral showcased the power of art to the world when their works were unveiled at UNESCO's global forum on the power of peace in Bali.
31st – Osian’s held their “Masterpieces and Museum-Quality Series” auction at the Taj Palace and Towers in Mumbai, with a VS Gaitonde oil selling for $1,307,900 and Amrita Sher-Gil’s “Girls in Conversation” going for $790,190. The sale kicked off the year with a total tally of over $9,000,000 USD.

February:
1st- The “International Modern & Contemporary Art” sale in Dubai continued the hot trend for Indian art with total sales at $9,417,560. PAG masters sold well as did the country’s “second tier” artists.
2nd - India and Russia signed a two-year cultural exchange program during Vladimir Putin’s visit of to India. The two countries will work towards development of cooperation in the field of fine arts, exchange of art exhibitions and works of folk art, as well as delegations of painters, handicraftsmen, art critics, and experts in traditional folk art.
15th - As a part of the several initiatives taken to raise funds for conserving nature and wildlife, the Bombay Natural History Society organized a Charity Auction of Contemporary Indian Art called Mission Greenscape. The collection was open to the public at the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery of Modern Art. The collection included works by artists such as Lalitha Lajmi, Manjit Bawa, Sunil Das, Vasudev Gaitonde, Akbar Padamsee, S H Raza, Paritosh Sen and many more.
22nd - Legendary Indian artist S. H. Raza returned to India from Paris to celebrate his 85th birthday. Weeklong celebrations were organized by the Raza Foundation, National Gallery of Modern Art, Art Alive Gallery and Alliance Francaise.

March:
21st - Christie’s held their spring New York auction, and although no works broke the million-dollar mark, prices remained solid for PAG oils on canvas—and did particularly well for their works on paper. Among the highlights at this auction, M. F. Husain’s Woman with Veena went for $132,000 with the money donated to Pratham UK and NGO charities aimed at eradicating illiteracy in India. Total sales were $8,593,080.
21st – New York City gallery TamarindArt and their invited guests marked their one-year anniversary as a full-time gallery with Pinnacle-Progressives, a rare exhibition from the private collection of owners Kent and Marguerite Charugundla featured works from the Progressive Artists Group.
22nd - At Sotheby’s NY, everything was coming up green—as in $15,007, 880 for the 172 lots up for bid. A majority of the works, which included miniatures and illustrations, sold at or over their pre-sale estimates, seemingly regardless of the artist or the medium.
24th - Christie's achieved total sales of $8.6 million in its New York auction of modern and contemporary Indian art. A V.S. Gaitonde Untitled work garnered the highest price at $768,000.

April:
An Artprice survey estimated that contemporary Indian art had made a progression of 480% over the past decade. Not surprisingly, works by F.N. Souza have appreciated the most dramatically over that period of time.19th – Bonham’s auction house announced it will open its first Middle East office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, following Christies and Sotheby's, on growing demand for Arab and India art.
19th – TamarindArt, in cooperation with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, presented a unique exhibition featuring vintage Bollywood posters from a bygone era. The show, which ran until May 5th, was also in cooperation with India Now, which featured a film series of Indian cinema at MoMA.

May:
21st - The first of three May London Indian contemporary art auctions was held at Bonham’s, with bidders holding tightly to their wallets. Of the 152 lots up for the sale titled Modern and Contemporary Indian and Pakistani Paintings, one-third (51 total) were passed, with few others surpassing their pre-sale estimates.
21st - S. H. Raza’s oil on canvas La Terre sold for $1,418,539 USD, quickly followed by F.N. Newton’s Landscape with Planet, which went for $613,128, and his Untitled (Man with Collar) for $212,867 at Christie’s London sale, which raked in a very solid total of $8,808,205.
24th - Indian art sales hit a snag at Sotheby's where more than 38 works were withdrawn in the 166 lots. Works passed included those by V.S.Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Raza, Husain, Anjolie Ela Menon, and other big names. “Second tier” artists, however, did well. Total sales figures topped out at $5.6 USD.

June:
24th - TamarindArt held an opening reception for one of their artists who had a solo exhibition at P.S.1 MoMA. Fuzzy Logic by Prema Murthy was organized by P.S.1 MoMA Director, Alanna Heiss
27-30 - Fifty-two watercolor paintings done by children from Sri Lanka who survived the Southeast Asia Tsunami of 2004 were offered for sale at the “AmeriCares Tsunami Art Benefit” at TamarindArt. All proceeds from the sale of these works went to benefit these children.

July:
10th – M. F. Husain was the guest of honor at the opening of Images and Illusions, an art exhibition at TamarindArt Gallery.
11th - Sotheby’s held a special auction was held to raise awareness and funding for the construction of The Kolkata Museum of Modern Art. The mega-project is designated as the first national art museum in India, and whose mission will to collect, preserve and exhibit national and international works of fine art from the 18th century to contemporary art. The auction raised over $1.5 million.

August:
17th – “Gateway Bombay”, an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum opened to introduce uninitiated viewers to some of India's most celebrated modern and contemporary artists. Organized by the museum’s curator of South Asian and Korean art and a Bombay-based art historian, the show aimed to address the impact of one of India's biggest and busiest cities on artists who have lived, studied, and worked in the Indian city now known as Mumbai.

September:
19th - New York fall Indian art sales kicked off at Sotheby’s with no great surprises, as most pieces that were sold came in at their pre-estimated prices. The final total was $6,311,738, just under the estimated low end. Twenty-eight of the available 114 lots (25%) were not passed, including big-ticket works by VS Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, FN Souza, and Jogen Chowdhury.
19th - A major exhibition of photography and video art depicting contemporary India opened at Newark Museum in New Jersey. The show, titled “Public Places, Private Spaces: Contemporary Photography and Video Art”, comprised over 100 works by 28 photographers and video artists, reflecting the interior and exterior realities of today's India. The show will run until Jan 6, 2008.
20th - Buyers threw all caution to the wind during Christie’s NY auction, which brought in a total of $10,115,050. Of the 110 lots sold, 70% went down the hammer above their pre-sale estimates.
21st - Indian contemporary art auction at Sotheby’s wrapped up the week with mixed results of the 58 lots (featuring mostly the younger generation of Indian artists) up for sale. Just over half the offerings fell into pre-sale estimates or slightly above, with the final take today of $1,818,780.
23rd - New York City was brimming with free Indian music, folk dances and art exhibitions when the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Ministry of Tourism organized India@60. The events, coinciding with the United Nations General Assembly, sought to attract the world’s attention to India by portraying its strengths — democracy, diversity and demographics — which have powered the sub-continent’s development.
24th – TamarindArt hosted an illustrated lecture and exhibition by renowned photographer Benoy K. Behl as part of Incredible India@60. The Ministry of Tourism & Ministry of Culture, Government of India, organized the celebration.

October:
11th – 14th - The Khoj Artists Association based in Delhi rubbed shoulders with 151 art galleries from across the world to showcase contemporary Indian art at the well-known Frieze Art Fair, an annual affair that takes place every October at the Regent Park, London. The fair offered a palette of works of over 1,000 artists from across the globe for visitors to see and buy.
26th - The top draw of the day at Bonham’s London Indian sale was a historic 19th century painting by Raja Ravi Varma that sold for nearly one million dollars. Contemporary works that also sold well were Amrita Sher Gil’s “Seated Girl”, along with paintings by Ganesh Haloi, F. N. Souza, and M.F. Husain.

November:
2nd – 3rd - Bypassing traditional art galleries and museums, the two-day All India Art Trade Fair in Delhi brought together 40 artists from across the country to showcase their work as well as sell them to collectors directly. The art fair gave a platform to emerging as well as veteran artists to display their work, as well as give customers an opportunity to interact with the artists.
15th - Artists from India and abroad converged at Delhi to raise awareness about rising social inequality in urban Indian cities. The group called Creative Conscience has been holding workshops and exhibitions on social themes since 2004.
27th – The BBC announced that noted English poet and writer Rudyard Kipling's birthplace in Mumbai is being converted into an art museum. The 100-year-old timber and stone two-story cottage, built more than 100 years ago, sits on the campus of the famed JJ School of Art in that city.

December:
1st – 2nd - Sixty pieces of art and handicraft went into an unusual exhibition at Gallery Art and Soul, Madhuli, in Worli -- half of the works were created by mentally challenged adults from the sheltered workshop Anchorage. Prominent JJ School of Art-trained artist Bhavana Shah's pieces were also showcased.
3rd – 102 paintings by contemporary Indian artists went under the hammer at Artcurial, one of Paris’ most prestigious auction houses. This was the first ever sale of contemporary Indian art to be held in that city, with final figures coming in just under $2 million.
5th – 6th -Even as S.H. Raza's “Maha Bindu” fetched $652,000 beating Tyeb Mehta's “Untitled” that sold at $602,500, Saffronart's two-day online auction of Indian art realized a total sale value of about $8 million from 110 lots representing 36 artists.
12th – A year-end analysis by the Economic/Indian Times suggests that the modern masters in Indian art have maintained a steady level on the price front, are still attracting healthy demand, and seemed to have stabilized in price, while some second-rung contemporary artists have set new benchmarks in these areas.

And so we shall see what the New Year brings.
If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves. Maria Edgeworth

Superlative Works Get their Due at Sotheby’s

The third and final New York City fall Indian art auction took place on 21st September with Sotheby’s Contemporary Art South Asia sale, and ended the week with quite a buzz. The morning session had 80 lots up for sale; of these, 35 (60%) surpassed their pre-estimated range, with some selling well—very, very well.

Buyers seemed to be in a discriminating mood, more discerning in their tastes, as 21 lots (26%) were passed in favor of break-through artists who are generating prices the PAG did not too long ago. For starters, Zarina Hashmi’s cast paper piece Phool, estimated at $15,000 - $20,000 finished at $73,000*, a Shobha Broota untitled oil on canvas for $61,000 (est. $8,000 - $12,000), and G. Ravinder Reddy’s pigment and gold leaf on terracotta bust for $70,600. Other names making their mark were Jyothi Basu (untitled oil on canvas, $82,600), Jayashree Chakravarty (her large-scale 'scroll' painting Space Within, $61,000), and Rashid Rana (The World is Not Enough, $91,000).

Midway through, bidding skyrocketed for exceptional works by exceptional artists. The final hammer fell for Subodh Gupta’s mixed media life-size sculpture of a family on a Vespa at $277,000, Chintan Upadhyay’s installation with thirty-three sculptures titled New Indians at $529,000, a TV Santhosh oil on canvas for $205,000 (est. $20,000- $30,000), and the show-stopper, Atul Dodiya’s Father, an enamel paint on metal roller shutters, acrylic and marble dust on canvas piece that came in at an eye-popping $601,000 (est. $230,000 - $280,000). Another work by Dodiya, Man From Kabul sold later on for $313,000.

Other artists who may be making a name for themselves, as this sale suggests, are Ashim Purkayastha, Abir Karmakar, Jitish Kallat, Justin Ponmany, Sonia Khurana, Shibu Natesan, GR Iranna, and Farhad Hussain.

Collectors and dealers of Indian contemporary art might be driven by demand for strong artworks with an outstanding provenance, created by talented artists; whatever the case, total sales for this day were a very nice $3,202,300. Include Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions earlier in the week, and that figure rises just shy of $20,000,000. A very good three-day tally for artwork of this still-growing and dynamic art market.

* All prices include Buyer's Premium

Christie’s NY Brings Out the Buyers

For those who thought that prices might have reached their peak and may be starting on a downward trend, a paraphrased quote from American humorist Mark Twain might be in order: “The report of my (insert ‘the Indian art market’) demise has been greatly exaggerated”—at least at Christie’s September 20th South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction. Buyers threw all caution to the wind during the morning session, which brought in a total of $10,115,050*.

Consider that of the 110 lots sold, 70% went down the hammer above their pre-sale estimates. Consider that Arpita Singh’s free-floating composition The Eternal Repose sold for $253,000, TV Santhosh’s Across an Unresolved Story went for $217,000 and his Rats and Man Made Famine III for $91,000 (both estimated at $30,000 - $40,000), and that Atul Dodiya’s oil and acrylic on canvas Three Painters topped out at a whopping $541,000 (est. $150,000 - $200,000). And that’s not counting other “secondary artists” as well as works by the Progressives. It was a great day for the genre.

The morning session began with three Jamini Roy gouaches doubling their estimates, with prices extending early on with MF Husain’s Indian village life-themed Birds-in-Tree that sold for $361,000 and an untitled work for $301,000. Other PAG artists fared as strongly with FN Newton’s sublime depiction of the female form entitled Nude with Fruit surpassing the half million-dollar estimate, selling for $657,000, another untitled nude for $457,000, while his Townscape went for $265,000. Later, three Ram Kumar’s sold for $181,000. $193,000 and $337,000; an SH Raza Bindu for $217,000 and his La Terre for $421,000. Top draw of this sale was Tyeb Mehta’s Mahishasura, which closed at $1,105,000.

Prices sustained throughout, with Chintan Upadhyay’s Sorry Does Not Make Any Difference I falling at $91,000, KCS Paniker’s Words and Symbols for $43,000 (est. $3,000 - $5,000), an Anish Kapoor watercolor for $51,400, Biren De’s April ’73 for $85,000, Bikash Bhattacharjee’s A Social Gathering for $181,000, a Ravinder Reddy polyester, resin, and fiberglass bust for $187,000. The buying surge carried through to the end with an untitled watercolor on paper laid down on cloth by Avinash Chandra selling for $145,000, Shibu Natesan’s Montage I for $157,000, and Rameshwar Broota’s A Chance Encounter for $265,000.

Perhaps the one nadir at Christie’s was that 33 (23%) lots were passed including works by Husain, Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Pabhakar Kolte among some less familiar names; nonetheless, the day’s results suggests that the Indian contemporary art market remains a strong and vibrant one, with no adjustment in values yet.

*All prices quoted include the buyer's premium and are rounded to the nearest dollar

Status Quo at Sotheby’s

New York fall Indian art sales kicked off September 19th at Sotheby’s with no great surprises, as most pieces that were sold came in at their pre-estimated prices. The final total was $6,311,738*, just under the estimated low end, but this would have certainly pushed much higher if 28 of the available 114 lots (25%) were not passed, including big-ticket works by VS Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, FN Souza, and Jogen Chowdhury. Keeping with recent trends, non-Progressive artists continue to perform well and nearly half the lots (45%) were of mediums other than oil on canvas.

Early on, it looked like buyers might be in a no-holds barred spending mood with a Rabindranath Tagore untitled tempera on handmade paper selling for $55,000 (est. $15,000 - $20,000 USD), three Jamini Roy tempera on card doubling their estimates, and an SH Raza watercolor and pencil on paper selling at $37,000, but then the tempo slowed somewhat. Six MF Husains’ sold well—3 over the estimates, 3 reaching them, including his Pagan Mother, an exquisite work painted mostly in blue, with the figure delineated by thick black lines, and highlighted with flashes of white and terracotta that went for $657, 000 (est. $500,000 - $700,000). An Akbar Padamsee emotive untitled nude fell for $181,000, a watercolor by the same artist was passed, and a bronze sculptured head went for $20,000.

After a Gaitonde oil went unsold (est. $500,000 – $700,000), prices rebounded nicely with four SH Razas’ that finished well, including an untitled acrylic on canvas going for $409,000; two Kumars’ going for $181,000 and $145,000 respectively, and most Souza works of various mediums going in their pre-sale range (although four were passed including Still Life with Three Fish, est. at a half millions dollars, high end). Rameshwar Broota’s monochromatic work The Other Space, created by the artist’s unusual and painstaking technique of scraping paint from the canvas, sold well at $601,000. A Jagdish Swaminathan untitled oil fell at $241,000.

Keeping with the latest trend, prices for India’s “second-tier” artists continue to inch upward. Four Shanti Dave oil and encaustic painting sold on average of just under $14,000, an untitled Sohan Qadri for $27,400 (quadrupling estimates), two Prabhakar Barwe enamels for $55,000 and $73,000, a Mohan Samant for $39,400, Abdul-Rahiman Appabhai Almelkar’s Two Women for $23,750, two Badri Narayan works for $22,500 each, and a Bikash Bhattacharjee untitled oil on canvas going down very well at $121,000.

Other names that garnered attention—and good numbers—in this sale included Satish Gujral, Gulam Rasool Santosh, B. Vithal, Reddeppa M. Naidu, Krishnaji Shamrao Kulkarni, Manjit Bawa, Balraj Khanna, Rabin Mondal, and Arpana Caur.

The morning session concluded with ten lots painted pre-20th century, with Herman Linde’s Girl Standing in a Veranda Wearing a Pochampalli Sari the highlight, selling at $133,000.

Overall, interest—and buying—remains high for this genre, although no records were broken on this cool, sunny day in mid-town Manhattan.

* All prices quoted include buyer’s premium

Whetting the Appetite

The Indian art market will soon be in full swing with three auctions coming up in New York City next month. Buyers, sellers, and those simply interested in where prices might go next, will be watching sales results closely to see if such works will continue their torrid climb. A preview follows for those who have been anticipating some sales action after a long summer layoff.

On September 19, Sotheby’s will hold its auction of Indian art, including miniatures and modern paintings, featuring M. F. Husain's Pagan Mother (estimated between $500,000 and $700,000), as well as an Untitled (Horse), oil on canvas (est. $200,000-250,000). Also being offered is The Other Space, an important painting by R. Broota estimated at $600,000-800,000, an untitled work by V.S. Gaitonde estimated at $500,000-700,000, and a untitled work by S.H. Raza (est. $280,000-380,000). The offering of approximately 118 lots is expected to bring in between $6.4 million and $9.4 million.

Paintings, sculptures, photographs and video art by Subodh Gupta and Mrinalini Mukherjee are among the highlights of the September 21st sale of Contemporary Art South Asia: India and Pakistan. One, an untitled life-sized sculpture depicting an Indian family on a motorcycle created by Gupta, is set to go for $200,000-250,000. This sale is estimated to bring in between $1.9 million and $2.6 million total.

Christie’s will hold their South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale on the morning of September 20th with their usual proliferation of exceptional works from the Progressive Artists’ Group masters. Included among them, Husain’s Iguanic (estimated to sell at $220,000 – 280,000), F. N. Souza’s Nude with Fruit (est. $300,000 – 500,000), and a Raza Bindu (est. $180,000 – 220,000).

Also set for bidding include works by Jamini Roy, Manjit Bawa, Aripa Signh, T. V. Santosh, Ram Kumar, B. Prabha, among many others. Christie’s catalogue of the approximately 145 lots can be viewed at their website.

It should be exciting to see how Indian contemporary and modern art prices fare as we move into the latter half of 2007.

Kamal Mitra Breaks Out

Progressive Artists Group painters, legendary. Second-generation Indian artists making their mark. And there are others standing in the wings, waiting to join them.

44-year old Kamal Mitra, born in Kolkata, a 1989 graduate in painting from Govt. College of Art & Craft, Calcutta and a 1993 Post Graduate in Graphic Art from Kala Bhavan, Viswabharati, Santiniketan, is one of these. With many exhibitions in India and New York already under his belt and an armful of distinguished awards bestowed upon him, including one for Graphic Art from Karnataka Lalit Kala Academy in 1993, he is certainly posed to become a respected name in that genre.

The dexterity with which Mitra handles his medium is remarkable. His compositions and palette have a dark undertone that lends a mysterious and tense quality to his paintings. His works use liminal spaces that float between the real and the fantasy, taking the viewer through a journey that blurs the boundaries of reality, like the untitled acrylic on canvas pictured here.

“His works are totally on the cutting edge,” one eminent Indian art collector said of Mitra, who is just starting to get noticed in the United States for his portentous acrylic paintings. “You might not have seen him at the auctions yet, but you will definitely see him in the near future.”

The time may be here when Kamal Mitra breaks out into the big time.

Images courtesy of TamarindArt Gallery ©2007

Change of Seasons

Summer 2007 is quickly slip-sliding away. Before we know it, verdant trees of green will be flaunting their red, yellow, and orange leaves of autumn, heat and humidity will give way to cooler, more bearable temperatures, children will be trading swimsuits for school books. And so it goes—September will be upon us soon.

The Indian contemporary art scene will likewise be shaking off the summer doldrums, returning to form with several auctions and exhibits in the works. The first, Saffronart’s Autumn Online Auction will kick things off September 5 –6. For those who want to get an early jump on the action, their catalogue will become available online on Aug 14.

Also beginning on the 6th of next month, TamarindArt, a popular midtown Manhattan gallery, will present a solo exhibition of paintings by Kamal Mitra featuring exquisite paintings that were showcased at their sold out show last November. On Wednesday, the 19th, they will host a cocktail reception for the special and ongoing show.

A major exhibition of photography and video art depicting contemporary India will be presented at Newark Museum in New Jersey beginning 19 September. The show, titled Public Places, Private Spaces: Contemporary Photography and Video Art, comprises over 100 works by 28 photographers and video artists, reflecting the interior and exterior realities of today's India. Photographers and artists represented include Raghu Rai, the late Raghubir Singh, Pablo Bartholomew, Vivan Sundaram, Ram Rahman and emerging talents such as Tejal Shah and Shilpa Gupta. According to the curators, this exhibition demonstrates India's "artistic vitality arising from extreme economic shifts, the pervasive influence of the media and cultural traditions competing with globalization".

And of course, fall Indian art auctions will be revving up at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York the third week of September. It should be interesting to see if prices pick up where they left off last spring.

These art events are just a few that will be occurring as the seasons change. Just enough to begin thinking about putting away the beach balls for another year and grabbing a rake.