Is the top end of the modern & contemporary art market in India a touch shaky?

It seems as if the top end of the modern & contemporary art market in India is a touch wobbling. Elaborating on the art market scenario, a recent post by art writer John Elliott from his blog 'Riding the Elephant blog’ mentions, “This underlines the fact that, despite its earlier boom, Indian art has never captured China’s level of international attention.

"A China record of $10.2m, more than three times India’s highest-ever price, was paid at a Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction in April for a three-panelled (triptych), Forever Lasting Love, by Zhang Xiaogang, a top contemporary mainland Chinese artist. By contrast, Subodh Gupta, who leapt to the forefront of Indian contemporary artists in the mid 2000s with paintings and installations of shiny pots and pans and other apparent aspects of modern Indian life, has not done well.

Last year in London an untitled 67×90in oil on canvas of an airport luggage trolley fetched only ($250,000) at Sotheby’s, which was about a fifth of a 2008 price for a very similar trolley.
This year at Sotheby’s there were no bidders for a vast 16ftx12ft Gupta installation of stainless steel pails (estimated at £300,000-£400,000).

An oil painting of saucepans pitched around last year’s trolley price also failed to sell. Two more works did not get buyers at Christie’s, while Saffronart wisely did not include him. Other Indian contemporaries however did better. A large Atul Dodiya painting of the artist’s father in Dodiya’s early photo-realist style fetched £265,250 at Christie’s. Jitish Kallat also sold at Christies and Sotheby’s but failed with one work at Saffronart.

But to an extent warning signs are emerging here, with top names such as Raza, Souza and Husain sometimes failing to sell for works that are either not regarded as being an artist’s best or are over-priced. Prices for Husain, who died on June 9, the day of the Christie’s auction, are likely to be tested in New York auctions in September.