Non-Indians grab contemporary Indian art

With China leading in prices, India's contemporary art market is set to grow — and grow.

In what will come as an affirmation of what gallerists have been saying for a while now, online auction house Saffronart’s Dinesh Vazirani says his growing base of international — as opposed to Indian or even non-resident Indian — buyer base is an interesting reflection of contemporary Indian art. A growing wedge of its collectors have no relation whatsoever to India.

“In our last auction,” says Vazirani, “28 per cent of our bidders were non-Indians”, and of the top five lots that were auctioned, “three were bought by non-Indians, including Subodh Gupta at $1.4 million”.

Although Subodh Gupta may be contemporary Indian art’s poster boy, at “just” $1.4 million, he’s well below what his Chinese peers are commanding in the art market — “in excess of $5 million,” according to senior specialist Oliver Barker of Sotheby’s, and “touching $9 million,” according to Vazirani.

This disparity, points out Barker, is because China is four-five years ahead of India where selling of art and prices are concerned, but the good news is, of course, that India’s upward spiral of prices for young artists will continue for some time before exhausting itself.

Another interesting feature, at least in online auctions, is the rising number of participants. “In a physical auction,” explains Vazirani, “both those bidding in the room and over the phone will be 50-75, or 100 maximum.” By contrast, “at Saffronart’s last online auction, 650 bidders participated” making it a “strong critical mass”.

The conundrum of contemporary art, the label by which post-war art is popularly addressed, is that it is, as Dr Amin Jaffer of Christie’s explains, “part of our lifestyle”. Or as Barker says, “Our level of acceptance has gone up.” Globally, the contemporary movement couldn’t be stronger, and interestingly, the trend is being driven by contemporary art from Asia — particularly China, India and West Asia.

“It reflects,” Vazirani echoes Jaffer, “the general mindset of the modern day collector, who is easily able to attend art fairs and biennales” and thus experience works of artists across different geographies.

That should be welcome news for Saffronart with its upcoming auction of 130 contemporary Indian works set to go under the hammer next week, with a lower estimate of Rs 16.5 crore and an upper estimate of Rs 20.5 crore. Recoveries, though, could easily overshoot estimates because “the focus on contemporary art internationally is very strong”, says Vazirani, “particularly where Indian contemporary art is concerned”.

The forthcoming auction brings some old favourites (Subodh Gupta with paintings, each estimated at Rs 2-2.8 crore; Atul Dodiya with a “thoughtful work”, Rs 60-80 lakh; Sudhir Patwardhan “after a long time”, Rs 50-60 lakh; TV Santhosh, Rs 50-60 lakh), but also “quite a few new additions”, which is indicative that “the pool of artists producing contemporary art has come of age”. Vazirani lists two as particular favourites: Shibu Natesan (estimate Rs 50-60 lakh) and Anju Dodiya’s mattress installation (Rs 40-60 lakh).

Interestingly, the catalogue features TV Santhosh on the cover, “which is not what many expected”, says Vazirani, “but internationally he has been creating waves. The majority of his works are being bought by international collectors, from Europe in particular.”

Ask him about the one thing that fascinates collectors of contemporary art, and Vazirani responds, “Innovation. How an artist takes a theme and innovates within a given context is very important. In Indian contemporary art, especially, it’s nice to see the local context in a global format.”