At the crossroads

It was quirky that a man who commonly featured trussed bulls in his work helped set off a bull run in the Indian art market. Tyeb Mehta’s Celebration sold for $317,500 (Dh1.16 million) at a 2002 auction, the highest amount ever paid at the time for an Indian painting at an international event.

And it is ironic that the quiet and unassuming V.S. Gaitonde’s works make considerable noise when they get sold, much after his demise in 2001. One of his untitled works fetched $3.5 million at Christie’s debut auction in India in 2013, while another abstract that sold for $4.41 million two years later remains unsurpassed as a world record for Indian art.Mehta and Gaitonde are joined by illustrious names such as F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and M.F. Husain — fellow members of India’s most influential art movement, The Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG) — and others like Amrita Shergill and Akbar Padamsee, whose works are listed among the most expensive Indian paintings ever sold.

Irony and quirkiness play their parts in defining the Indian fine art market, best described as a kaleidoscope of promises versus pitfalls. For starters, the top names that command record auction figures are also leading subjects of forgery. An estimated Rs8.1 billion (Dh432.9 million) worth of forged art is traded every year in India according to the recent industry report, Visual Arts Industry in India: Painting the Future, from KPMG in India and FICCI.

Other challenges include private sales that are not privy to transparency or accountability, apathy from authorities, and the notion that Indian art is better respected abroad than at home. While the Indian government’s demonetisation drive and the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) resulted in a double whammy for domestic buyers, the last union budget allocated a meagre 1 per cent of total outlay towards the Ministry of Culture, the body in charge of preserving and promoting art in India. 

In the period between January to September 2017, 183 works of Indian contemporary art were sold in auctions around the world, fetching a total of Rs126.3 million, which was a sharp decline from the 333 artworks sold for Rs399 million during the same period in 2013, says the KMPG-Ficci report. Factors contributing to this decline include the lack of institutional support and an artificial rise in the prices of art compared to a decade ago.

In contrast to the gloom, game changers expected to increase market size include easier access and availability through online art platforms, increased purchasing power associated with newly minted high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), worldly and culturally aware millennials, and savvy Indian auction houses.

Dadiba Pundole, the respected industry doyen who owns one of India’s oldest art galleries, Pundole Art Gallery, as well as Dubai’s Sovereign, is more gung-ho now about his eponymous auction house. Associated with blue-chip works and pedigree collectors, Pundole’s has had several white-glove auctions in a very short span of time.

“India is not buying enough art. It is still a very thin field at the top, especially when you compare it to a country like China,” he says. “There are key reasons — Indians seem to have different priorities, they battle a lack of confidence, and they perceive art differently from other objects of luxury. If they can buy very expensive imported cars, why are they not buying art.”

As if in answer, Pune-based Shravani Vatti is promoting two unusual streams of business through her start-ups, Ardizen and ArtEnthuse — buying and renting Indian art to Indian corporates. “We have been seeing a steady rise in both, interest from buyers and quality of artists’ work,” she says.

Vatti also explains buying patterns: “In the hospitality segment, bulk buying is predominant, with a fair amount of money going into marquee pieces, for say, the lobby. Corporate clients however are more particular. Of late, perhaps because of the higher pricing of art by the masters, buyers are more open to emerging artists.”

The Indian art sector, valued at $223 million, is a mere fraction of the $56-billion global market, but with HNWI assets expected to reach $2.3 trillion by 2020, the potential is enormous, says the KPMG-Ficci report. Looking through its kaleidoscope reveals quaint contradictions at the end of its mirrors. “Go out and look — at least look,” Pundole urges, as he asks Indians not to consider the purchase of paintings as investment.

Buying art is similar to buying a new home and weighing factors such as likeability, suitability, and desirability. Look at a home — or art — purely as an investment and you would never buy either, he explains.  “If you really like a painting and can afford it, take the plunge. Go ahead and buy it.” 

Vatti concurs that it is aesthetics and not profits that should drive buying, adding that the principle applies to individuals and institutions. “A great piece of art with fantastic potential would still make a bad purchase if the buyer does not enjoy looking at it.”