One of India’s most renowned and popular contemporary artists, Jitish Kallat’s rise to fame sums up the impressive growth of Indian art itself, in a way, in the last decade or so. Born in Mumbai, he spent his formative years in a middle-class, suburbia locality.
He was more interested in mass media and advertising than fine art. However, within a month of his admission at Sir J.J. School of Art, he made up his mind to become an artist. Interestingly, Deutsche Bank acquired one of his works during a student exhibition at art school. It also had it up prominently in their lobby. Coincidentally, a German curator noticed it at the bank then, and met the artist to invite him for an important show. He even read an essay at the conference.
This noteworthy artist of his generation narrates many such interesting moments in his career and also makes some pertinent observations about contemporary Indian art. According to him, art being made in India was highly undervalued given the quality just until about five years ago. In global context, one has to see the sharp rise in value in terms of the general realignment of the world as well as India’s rising sphere of influence as an emerging power, which has created an interest in ‘everything Indian’ including the art market.
The artist has stated: “The art scene in India has gained tremendous internal momentum and I only see more and more people getting involved with the field of contemporary art. As the circumference of the Indian World grows, I hope the institutions - museums and art schools - as well as the media grow and operate in a more enlightened fashion.”
The art world and the markets tend to go through cycles of infatuation hence one should take neither neglect nor attention too seriously, he observes.
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