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| London, Hong Kong, New York - New Delhi? |
| Kishore Singh / New Delhi Jun 17, 2009, 00:03 IST |
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The time may be right for India to bid for the status of an international centre for art, but not before the government clears some stumbling blocks.
Fourteen international galleries from the UK and China, the Netherlands and the Philippines, Dubai, Germany, Japan and Latvia will be present at the India Art Summit in August, in New Delhi, marking one of the largest expositions of international art not just in the capital city but in India. The Summit, in its second edition, has become a pivotal event, with many galleries pinning their hopes — and budgets — on expectations of a buzz, if not yet a turnaround in their fortunes, on this gathering of art lovers: Buyers and sellers, observers, investors, curators and writers.
Months earlier, the inauguration of the new wing of the National Gallery of Modern Art raised hopes of the ability to bring in international shows from museums around the world. Certainly, most important artists, and art-related events, no longer just flirt with the idea of showing first in Delhi, before even Mumbai, which was for many years considered the capital of art in India. Even though the offices of Christie’s and Sotheby’s are located in that city, and Osianama will get its first official address there, it is Delhi that is big on the international radar as a city of art.
For some centuries now, the major centres of art have been London and New York, famously for their museums and galleries and art endowments, the presence of their auction houses, and the familiarity at large among residents with art in general. Paris is a painter’s city but doesn’t occupy the same space, and the art fairs from Basel to Shanghai have remained just that, art fairs, but these are not, for the rest of the year, major art centres. More recently, Hong Kong has succeeded because of the presence of a wealthy expatriate population and laws that are convivial to the purchase of art. Singapore’s bid for a slice of the Asian pie has not worked despite a liberal museum climate because the government is a hawk when it comes to anything likely to be controversial, and Dubai, despite a start, appears stranded not only because of the downturn in its fortunes but also because of its extremely controlled business environment that, like Singapore, frowns on anything suggestive of impropriety. Imagine the furore, for instance, that a show of Souza nudes might create in either Dubai or Singapore.
Which leaves Delhi in a very fortunate place as an upcoming centre for international art, but before it can occupy that spot, it needs to iron out several issues, some of which have to do with its temperament, others to do with government regulations.
For all its millennia-old culture, Delhi is a brash, even an upstart, city, where the fine arts have been given short shrift in the public domain. It is important for any art centre to have an environment where its residents, in the course of the day, would enter museums and galleries of their own will, discuss the semantics of art, and be knowledgeable not only about the nation’s art practices but excited about the prospect of international exhibitions. In reality, few Delhi-ites can even tell you the location of the National Gallery of Modern Art.
To its credit, though, the market already exists. New Delhi, in the last decade, has seen several interesting galleries, even museums, open, and curations and exhibitions have got more challenging. To an extent, the infrastructure too exists, and it is only a matter of time before someone packages art tours, talks, shows and seminars on an ongoing, and billable, schedule.
What will need urgent remedial action are our antiquated processes and regulations — antique laws, to begin with. An international art centre needs a more liberal climate, where antiques can be as easily brought in or taken out: Currently, the state levies heavy cess even on national treasures being brought back into the country, as happened in the case of Vijay Mallya’s successful auction bid to bring back Tipu Sultan’s looted treasures. Or, why should intra-trading of antiques be discouraged, which will only result in undisclosed private sales, or even smuggling?
Customs duties need to be sorted out too. There needs to be enough security cover and climate-controlled airport warehousing for the safe storage, or passage, of artworks, and a system that allows them to be brought in/out of the city without the delays to which such consignments are subject. Insurance cover needs to be provided, for which a certain expertise has to be built into government, or outsourced, and the extent of taxes needs to be studied for discrepancies.
There’s no gainsaying that the city will be enriched by continuing exposure and association with art, but it will also bring international collaborations with opportunities for an entire business — evaluators, curators, insurance experts, royalty appraisers, packers, security agencies, printers, publishers, tour agents and guides, framers, conservators, gallerists, auctioneers et cetera — built around high-value gains: For themselves and for the city. But how does New Delhi swing this?
For starters, it might help if someone got Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to read this.
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