Art market: What lies ahead?

Most market participants expect a positive development in the first half of 2011, indicating the overall optimism that prevails in the Indian art market.

As has been generally observed, it's the Asian artists and buyers that are keeping the international art market afloat. Fueled by the strong economic parameters, the growth in this dynamic region has been accompanied by an increasing interest in more traditional Indian art forms, as well as the continual growth of modern and contemporary art, mentions a recent report in The Independent, UK.

In fact, 2010 proved to be an excellent year on the auction front for Indian art. Leading players focused on quality works, to target the more discerning buyers/ collectors. Highlighting a rising international attraction and appreciation for the quality works of Indian and South East Asian artists, Jonathan Stone, the regional managing director of Christie's Asia, states: "Demand from Asia continues to lead the global recovery of the auction market and to drive the growth in 2010.'' After becoming the second-largest category at Christie's worldwide in 2009, Asian art now represents more than 15 per cent of our sales.''

Seemingly listless at the beginning of the year, the auction scene gradually gathered momentum, and maintained its positive bias throughout 2010. Sotheby's and Christie's registered impressive first-half revenues - up a whopping 140% and 67% respectively versus their corresponding fine art revenue figures last year, indicating the upswing and the resultant revival of their fortunes.

The leading market players focused on quality works in order to target the discerning buyers’ category. Incidentally, most top lots at prominent sales were dominated by traditional and modern art. Artists with strong international backing and visibility like Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta seemed to have greater scope and speed of recovery. Progressive modernists, such as FN Souza, VS Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Raza and Husain witnessed good demand.