Art for the masses

We are an emotional people even when served with hard facts and numbers, which, these days, seem not to support the government's vision of growth. The media is playing spoilsport with reports of rural distress, pre-festive sales blues and plummeting auto sales — considered a bellwether of an economy in decline — because of which people are holding tight to their purses when it comes to notable spends. There's no denying that retail sentiment is negative, but it will take only a token positivism to make people feel good and go out and spend again. Can the luxury segment expect such good news?

Speaking for the art industry, a tiny collector base makes it difficult to monitor such trends with any degree of accuracy. A few bold bids at a couple of art auctions can change the annual bottomline for art sales to an extent that can range from despair to euphoria. It is simply too small a number to be an accurate reflection of the art market, and yet one cannot be oblivious to it either. For now, therefore, even as the general market shrinks and a despondent mood settles on the country's retail sector, the art industry appears not to be much impacted. If there is, indeed, a change in sentiment, it will be known in September following a few big auctions led by Pundole's at the end of this month.

There was a time when "feel-good" retail spends increased when times were dire, but art sales bucked this trend during the 2008 recession with its impact lasting till recently. Perhaps it had to do with what are considered high prices for art. Certainly, records in the West now seem to be at an all-time high. In India too, in the absence of adequate media coverage around art in general, it is only extraordinary auction prices that make it to the front pages of the newspapers, causing general alarm about what many reckon to be standard prices for these artists. As any art lover or collector will know, nothing could be farther from the truth. 

Photo: iStock

The absence of a mass market for art means there is very little movement where it should be the most — the world of emerging artists, of budget galleries, of lower priced works, of prints and art paraphernalia. This is the market that will sustain art in the long term, not the occasional benchmark price but art sold in volumes at an upper middle-class and middle-class level. It will happen when people reckon art is as important to have in a home as a sofa or a dining table. Should that happen, middle-class numbers are so large that it could result in a revolution, leading to a massive consumption of art. India has the constant ability to surprise. The huge growth in its aviation market should be a pointer to how fast things can change in this country.

For this, art needs ambassadors. Real estate rentals make galleries expensive, which is why most prefer to work withestablished artists and apply steep commissions. To grow the minuscule number of collectors to a formidable quantity requires a disruption to turn it into a mass movement — the art equivalent of Oyo, or Jio, for instance. The cult of the white cube has been debated previously, but no solution to it has been found. Street art is a beginning but has its limitations. What art requires is a mass retail force behind it. When it comes — as it inevitably will — it will change its consumption scenario in ways difficult to foretell. It will also make players not quick to adapt to this change redundant. Till that time, the industry can only wait and watch.
 

Kishore Singh is a Delhi-based writer and art critic. These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which he is associated