Saturday, December 24, 2011

Growth trajectory of Indian and Chinese art

Leading art research firm ArtTactic’s market confidence on the eve of 2011 report had given a thumbs-up to Indian modern art, albeit expressing a touch of caution about the contemporaries. The analyst firm’s Indian Art Market Confidence Indicator then had shown a good recovery largely on the back of stronger secondary/ auction market for Modern Indian art. What does its latest report indicate?

According to it, the confidence in the Indian Modern art market still remains reasonably high, in spite of negative economic outlook globally. The overall Indian Art Market Confidence Indicator of ArtTactic is down by more than 25% (28%, to be precise) from six months ago. But this is more to do with macro-economic factors and the waning confidence in the Indian economy, which drops by a significant 69%.

However, most experts are still strongly positive about state of the Indian Modern art market, with a streak of confidence gradually creeping back into the strength of contemporary Indian art market, as well. Giving an overview of the auction scene, the report mentions: “The last round of Indian art auctions (in September 2011) was a lackluster affair, with the final sale figures coming in 17% below the low-end of its pre-sale estimate range of 885,120 to 989,475. However, the total (although it failed to reach the pre-sale expectations) managed to halt the steady decline in sales volume that the market has experienced for more than a year.”

On the other hand, the broader Chinese Contemporary Art Market Confidence Indicator maintained a positive bias, in spite of the drastic drop in the contemporary art market confidence level, internationally. The Contemporary Art Market Confidence indicator of China presently stands at 80. It’s the highest reading of all the Market Confidence Indicators released by ArtTactic Art; that of US and Europe is 35, whereas India is doing much better (though not as well as China) with its the Market Confidence Indicator reading at 53.

However, this market confidence as far as China is concerned, might face a stress test, so to say, in the next 6 months. Experts are a bit concerned about the sustainability of the present growth rate. Close to half of those (49%) surveyed (up from just 17% of in April 2011) feel the Chinese contemporary art market will be flat in the next 6 months.

Corroborating this undercurrent of thought, Colin Gleadell of The UK Telegraph suggested in a recent news report, tracking Asian art (that of China in particular) sales figures attained by Bonhams and Christie’s London that some steam sure has gone out of the Chinese market as quite a few of the higher valued lots were unsold in November 2011.

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