Indian art gets its first public airing

The buzz this year will translate into business next year, say analysts.

Will Martyr, London-based artist, currently camping at the India Art Summit courtesy the Emerging World Art gallery, points to three inflatable PVC monkeys painted over with acrylic. “I’ve received lots of orders for these,” he laughs. But I’m more interested in a flattering, almost evangelical, portrait of Vijay Mallya, a kingfisher dipping over his head, yachts prettily lined up behind him, jet roofing him into the canvas. “I’m fascinated by aspirations of opulence,” says Martyr, “and Vijay, yes, I know him!”

“Vijay” could as easily be Richard Branson in Martyr’s work, but what is exciting at the Summit, on till Sunday evening in New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, is the happy energy that it is generating. Jitish Kallat is being treated like a popstar, his installation fatigued with the kind of eyeball-popping flashbulbs one might expect for a Bollywood nymphet. People stop gallerists Arun Vadehra and Peter Nagy in the corridors to ask their opinion of the work of an artist. In a crowded hall, gallery owners are unmindful of egos as they sit next to unknown collectors while representatives from auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s get an eyeful of the Indian art scene.

And what a view it is. F N Souza and SH Raza. Akbar Padamsee and Bikash Bhattacharjee. Sunil Das, Yusuf Arakkal, Krishnamachari Bose, Sohan Qadri. Gigi Scaria, Riyas Komu, Arpana Caur, Paresh Maity. Only M F Husain, for reasons of prudence, is missing — but that is another story.

The big and small, the celebrated and the unknown rub shoulders as the corridors surge with people. Little red dots appear beside works. Prices are settled, hands shaken. The buzz, the excitement is at fever pitch. Never before have so many works by so many artists and so many galleries come together for what is the debut outing of Indian art.

This isn’t Basel, not yet; nor even a measure of the smaller fairs, but it is surprisingly well put together. Most stalls, it is true, are too tiny for the big canvases they have chosen to show. Catalogues exchange hands, but almost no one has thought to curate a show especially for the Summit, no one has had the confidence to ride on a single artist, or a series of cutting-edge works. There’s safety in a collage of artists, in established galleries as much as those known for their more avant-garde selections, but they’ve chosen to show what the Indian collector is at least familiar with. But here, familiarity hardly breeds contempt. One round and suitable pauses, and you have a pretty good idea of what the galleries have been showing in the last few months.

Younger artists and students are in evidence, but next year, it is clear, the galleries will increase the spaces they book, senior artists like Anjolie Ela Menon will attend, and not just as speakers, but because they are as curious to see what the Rs 1,500 crore art market has up its sleeve.

Art funds, insurance companies, galleries noticeable because of their absence, packers, framers, printmakers, dealers, collectors, buyers and sellers: next year, Summit II, I’ll be there with bells on. This was just a trailer, folks. Or as a gallerist told me, “It’s good, na!”