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| Picasso originals, anyone? |
| Kishore Singh / New Delhi Nov 11, 2009, 00:35 IST |
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Investors in India must not shy away from seeking value in works by Picasso or Dali.
Pablo Picasso is no stranger to the country — both the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Vadehra Art Gallery have, in previous years, hosted exhibitions of his works — but now that the Spanish Cultural Centre, in a bid to remind Indians of his nationality, is hosting the Suite Vollard exhibition of his works between 1930-37, interest in the artist is peaking again. Not that Picasso needs an introduction: he is on the same scale globally as M F Husain is in India, though his life and works are more akin to the glamour that surrounded Amrita Sher-Gil than, perhaps, Husain.
The Vadehra exhibition sold out rapidly, proving that there is a market in India for Western artists, even though these were mostly lithos or limited edition prints or painted ceramicware. Nor were the prices unreasonable — between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 25 lakh for most, certainly affordable in view of his formidable reputation and, given the context of rising prices for Indian art then, only a little more than the prices for serigraphs of some Indian artists.
There is nothing wrong in Indian art occupying the same platform as international art — the basis of price differentials, for instance, has been made much of in India, even though we have yet to match the genius of Cézanne, or Matisse, Gauguin, Monet, Modgliani or van Gogh — but where collectors must learn to draw the line is in overpaying for an artist’s worth. This was clearly the case in India, where the prices of serigraphs fell so sharply, there is almost no market for them currently. Yet, prices for Picasso have not fallen in the meanwhile, having remained steady through the meltdown, proving that an artist’s longevity as well as his worth are determined not so much by dealers as by collectors.
It is anybody’s case that Western art too has had its absurd pricing peaks, mostly for contemporary artists, and nothing illustrates this as well as Damien Hirst, whose works were piling up as so much inventory in galleries before he pulled off a marketing heist by taking his most recent works directly to auctioneer Sotheby’s for a landmark auction, ironically on the same day that Lehman Bros went bust. Prices since have teetered, but they have not lost value anywhere close to the same percentage as his Indian peers because Hirst’s genius at least is unmatched.
Indian collectors, in being too timid, are therefore losing out on a critical element when they close their eyes to art restricted to just India, giving the odd regional or Islamic work a nod or two. Just as collectors internationally opened up to Indian art, Indian investors and collectors must more willingly seize the market for international art as a reflection of both their cosmopolitan selves as well as a globalised world.
The issue, often, is of prices, and it is true that value for international art can be high if it is well known names such as Jeff Koons or the Indian-born Anish Kapoor (whose works at the India Art Summit were tagged at under Rs 1 crore) they are dealing with, though there is a lot of art in the middle market that barely matches and sometimes was cheaper than ambitious Indian artists before their market crashed. It’s true that an original masterpiece by Picasso might set you back by $55,000,000, or Rs 260 crore — that’s a high even for him — but with etchings available from, say, Rs 2 lakh onwards, he’s more accessible than many might think. And with prices increasing at 10 per cent every few years, it might be a better investment than most.
That perhaps is the reason why the Delhi-based Marigold Fine Art decided to opt for Western artists as its raison d’être, and even though many of these are contemporary artists, the huge interest is in — no surprise there — Picasso, or Salvador Dali, whose limited edition works have literally flown off their walls or shelves, at least some of which have been bought by high-flyers only on the basis of familiarity with their names.
As the world shrinks, geographies become irrelevant and local contexts in art melt away, it is high time Indian collectors got off the high horse of Indian art to test the waters with a global list — as Vijay Mallya has done. Will others follow?
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