What draws collector/investors to Indian art?

Apart from the investment angle, in sheer aesthetic and thematic terms, Indian art is drawing the global attention. Economic growth and urbanization coupled with the increasing intervention of cutting-edge technologies have dramatically altered India’s socio-economic landscape over the last couple of decades.

New foreign influences infiltrate, collide and intertwine with the country’s rich traditions and ancient values that still remain unchanged. Socially sensitive, talented contemporary artists highlight this irony through their practice placed in a global context in a range of artistic media from painting, sculpture, and photography to installation and video art.

Their themes are intimately linked with the local ethos and they tactfully assess the impact of globalization and other pressure points for drastic change in a society still heavily reliant on tradition. The brain behind Outset India, a platform to draw private funding for art in India, Feroze Gujral, mentioned in an interview with The Hindustan Times: “The contemporary Indian art scene is growing at a fast pace, second only to China. It is considered as a serious business with a turnover of over $350 million in 2011. It is an investment taken very seriously by all. Our country has immense potential to flourish in this space.”

Despite adverse global conditions the auction scene gradually gathered momentum, and maintained its positive bias throughout 2011. The leading market players focused on quality works in order to target the discerning buyers’ category. In conclusion, this is not a market for those looking to make quick money, but perfect for committed collectors, ready to pick the quality works on offer at attractive prices.

For example, online art auction house Saffronart’s '24-Hour Absolute Auction of Contemporary Indian Art' fetched Rs 2.44 crore ($510,194) of sales. This auction featured 85 lots of which Subodh Gupta's 'Untitled' sold for Rs 72 lakh ($150,000). In an Absolute Auction, each lot is won by the highest bidder at the time of closing, irrespective of the bid amount and has no reserve prices. On the other hand, an IndiaBull auction logged 100% sales beating estimates.