State of the art market in India

ArtTactic’s recent market confidence report presents an encouraging picture for modern art in India, but remains a tad cautious on the contemporaries.

Now that the Indian economy is almost back on track, overall investor confidence even in the art market is boosted. Analysts believe the Indian recovery is on a solid footing. Against this backdrop, the new Indian art market confidence survey throws up some interesting trends.

• It points to optimism in the art market. However, its analysis of the state of contemporary market is somewhat gloomy.
• Since the last report in May, the new report suggests a further drop of 10.8%, reflecting the fact. With the modern art market, on the other hand, having recovered, the confidence gap between the two now stands at 78.2%. The confidence indicator for modern art in India is up by 5.2%.
• Spectre of speculation in art is down by 7.9%, and 53% of the respondents believed that the market has rebounded. More than 50% think it will inch upwards in the next six months or so. Of course, a section of them is apparently still nervous.

This time both investors and collectors are more careful. They are posing questions like: What are the long-term prospects of a work? How much should one ideally invest? Who can serve as impartial guides in the whole process? What about aspects like short-term liquidity? How to enhance the worth or value of your portfolio? How to chuck weak assets to acquire more blue-chip artists?

Finding answers to these questions is now an important exercise for those keen to build a portfolio. Summing up the investors’ mood, art expert Kishore Singh notes in his recent Business Standard column: “What’s interesting is that they aren’t really rushing in to buy art with the herd-like mentality visible during the pre-2008 era. Art funds, as a result, are being given short shrift. Both collectors and investors, drifting back into the market, appear determined to control their investment (on the own).”