Dealers must promote new artists

The Christie's biannual sale of Indian contemporary art seems to get more and more predictable each year.

You'd find hundred tightly packed lots from Ravi Varma and Atul Dodiya with a couple of works of every major artist stacked in between.

Even though its last sale held in New York on September 17 was not radically different from the previous ones, its results throw some light on the current health of the art market.

The sale began on a strong note with two Ravi Varmas (lot 138 & 139) selling for $119,500 or Rs 55 lakh each. Souzas were clearly much more in demand than other progressives like Ram Kumar, Syed Haidar Raza or even Akbar Padamse.

However, the sale indicated that Husain's market is in great shape if a good quality work comes along. Most of the works on offer were from the collection of publisher N Harry Abrams who was responsible for the first monograph on the artist.

Husains, in general, did rather well with "Bulls" (lot 147) selling for $107,000 (approximately Rs 50 lakh) and a "Mother Teresa" (lot 160) making a fraction less.

Both Tyeb Mehta and Vasudeo Gaitonde also made just over $100,000 as expected. A bold red and black Gaitonde (lot 163) fetched $ 101,575 or Rs 46 lakh and a recent Baconesque Tyeb triptych from 1998, entitled Mahishasura (lot 168) was sold for $120,000 or Rs 55 lakh.

As the auction indicated, connoisseurs and investors are quite bullish on Indian art.

However, the market for progressives seems to be settling down.

This, in my view, is a positive signal for the art world. It shows that the "catching up" phase is getting over.

Works with great provenance and condition are more sought-after and the difference between good and bad quality work is growing.

Clearly, the international art world has discovered that there is more to art than the progressives. At the sale, prices for works by Arpita Singh, Bhupen Khakhar and Rameshwar Broota shot through the roof.

The art world, especially in Mumbai, clearly needs to get away from the progressives mania that has dominated much of the buying.

It must open its eyes to other schools. It is sad, however, that even though dealers are doing brisk business by selling topmost names, they aren't spending enough resources to showcase younger, more cutting edge work.

While Tyebs and Gaitondes sell for over $100,000 each time, even in a booming market reputed avant garde dealers such as Peter Nagy of Nature Morte and Prima Kurien of Art Inc have had to close shop because they refuse to trade in lucrative secondary market junk, which basically means closing doors on younger artists and reselling older works of established ones.

What we really need are energetic curators with a fresh vision to team up with established dealers and show new work of the unknown artists and look out for the Tyeb Mehtas of tomorrow.

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