Thursday, May 31, 2012

Gurgaon rivaling New Delhi in terms of market for art

A group show, entitled ‘Chapters’, was organized by TAD Arts in collaboration with the Galaxy Hotel and Spa earlier this month. It had works by several artists including Farhad Hussain, Abir Karmakar, George Martin, Rohit Sharma, Rupa Paul, Rajan Krishnan, and Sharmi Chaudhry. It focuses on each individual artist, presenting their style of work, their life as a Chapter and their inspirations. Each of the painting talked about current times; something that the younger generation of buyers could well relate to, prompting them to buy these artworks.

The director of TAD Arts, Niten Mehta stated that it was difficult to put an exact figure to the market in Gurgaon as far as art is concerned but that the millennium city was definitely becoming an attractive place to large portion of art buying community as there was a fast-increasing number of young professionals traveling across the world, and thus getting aware of art trends. This segment of buyers is quite comfortable and conversant with the idea of art entering their homes. They are at the same time willing to spend some part of their wealth into purchasing something which is sensible in terms of theme, style and composition.

Talking about how a work of art is usually priced, Mr Mehta points out that, it’s usually the artist who will put a price tag which will remain standard or constant at all locations. The gallerist works with different artists. Some of them have had exhibited a pattern of increasing their tag. If someone wins an award or has featured in an international show, it is obvious that the artist is going to rise the price accordingly but if an artist is going to change prices for no specific reasons – those that cannot be explained in tangible terms, they can lag behind, since gallerists are wary of working with them.

According to him, hotels are a good place to promote art since they are perhaps not as 'intimidating' as a formal gallery. And in Gurgaon, he points out, there's a vast number of young corporate executives who visit  a restaurant quite often. Not everyone, of course, will purchase the paintings but a few out of them will be curious about them, get a fair idea of what really art is all about, and know what's happening in the contemporary Indian art scenario.

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