The new blue chips

Young, richer buyers are gravitating towards younger artists. And thanks to the meltdown, masters - even European masters - are within reach. Then, there are sculptures that will dominate... Kishore Singh picks out your art buys.

Billionaires don’t buy art, their consultants do. Which is why it is rare that the paintings on the walls will reflect their true taste, or understanding, of art. And since consultants, advisors, design experts — call them what you will — find their commissions directly linked with price (thereby having helped the bull run in Indian art) as well as easily understood content (which is why figurative art, especially derivative religious art, continues to enjoy popularity), it’s hardly surprising that M F Husain and Shuvaprasanna enjoy pride of place in drawing rooms.

Yet, if only this was the case, contemporary artists would have found it difficult to break through the barriers of the masters with subjects that range from foeticide to terrorism, from garbage and pollution to alienation and loneliness. Clearly, there is growing space in their environments for Subodh Gupta to co-exist beside Tyeb Mehta, for Rekha Rodwittiya and Arpana Caur to match sensibilities, for T V Santhosh and Bhupen Khakar to hang beside each other.

Art has always been the privilege of the very rich, and a growing number of younger buyers (as opposed to collectors) have an interest in younger artists whose subject they find it instinctively easier to empathise with. It is they who reach out for Atul Dodiya and Anita Dube and Bharti Kher and Jogen Chowdhury, so their prices have paralleled those of the masters, going into several crores.

It is entirely possible that more art will now come into the market as a result of the meltdown than was available even a few months ago, when shows would literally be sold out in a few hours. This is especially true of art buyers in the United States where the recession has been crippling enough for them to sell off their assets, including art, at huge discounts.

It makes sense to buy and sell these works right there, since bringing them to India would invite fairly hefty duties (between 15-30 per cent) — but even gallerists are feeling the pinch, and so art works are literally going for a song. No wonder professionals are advising that this might be the best time to buy the masters — though there is also apprehension that people are holding on to the best quality works as a future hedge, so less than the best is coming into the market.

Suggested masters to pick up: the Tagores (great value now), Husain naturally, J Swaminathan, S H Raza, and if you can swing it, Tyeb Mehta. The next rung includes Jehangir Sabavala. Akbar Padamsee, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar and Arpita Singh.

The good news is that the contemporaries have been price-corrected, which makes it a very good time to grab them now: Subodh Gupta, Atul Dodiya, T V Santhosh, Bharti Kher, Surendran Nair, Riyas Komu, Shibu Natesan.

The meltdown is also a good time to look outside India. Recent interest in Asian art has thrown up artists and information from China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea and, of course, Pakistan. It’s worth checking out the possibility of investing in entire collections from these nations, or at least building up a thematic collection of your own from there. Prices have taken a bigger beating than in India, so you can get works cheap there, but will require experts to guide you through the transactions.

European art has always been hugely expensive, but Indian collectors have begun to look West at either limited editions works or mid-level art to fulfill their global personas, and at least one gallery — Marigold Fine Art — is helping to fill that gap with limited edition Salvador Dali sculptures, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol paperworks, Jorg Doring pop art, Serge Mendjisky landscapes, and now something called “reverspective” by Patrick Hughes, which changes dimensions as the viewer walks past, almost like an illusion. Hughes work has just been made available in India.

Photography is becoming increasingly popular, but it is sculpture, or at least sculptural art, that will dominate this meltdown — perhaps something solid to hold on to? India is just getting over its engagement with the Santiniketan style of mother-and-child sculptures that were rampant across the country, and new talent is emerging. Till then, your blue chips will include Ravinder Reddy (fibreglass), K S Radhakrishnan (bronze), Daroz (pottery), Chintan Upadhyay and Anish Kapoor (of UK fame, if you can get him — or even afford him, billionaire or not.)