The changing dynamics of collecting art

For several years, importance of art as a tangible asset was ignored. Unlike other traditional or even alternative investment avenues, it did not receive attention of most market experts. Art as an asset class remained on the periphery largely because it was not as closely analyzed and tracked as most other investment options and even commodities, especially in India.

Of course, wealthy individuals and premier institutions like museums have always been acquiring paintings and other forms of art, largely thought to be beyond the purview of masses. Thankfully, the situation has changed in the last decade or so – both in qualitative and quantitative terms. The art scene has become much more democratic. Furthermore, insight into mechanics of the art market, a more professional approach, an extensive coverage and research to meet the norms of mainstream financial markets has drawn more people to art.

Simultaneously, the art market has become more liquid and transparent in nature. Many parameters, indices as well as auction benchmarks have been created for the purpose of tracking the trajectory, history, provenance and sales trends as a natural response to the growing interest in art. Now, novel analytical frameworks and methodologies are constantly being developed for more dynamic art market research.

Lack of knowledge is no more a hindrance thanks to the Internet and several insightful publications on art. In fact, much is now being talked and written about the international art market, with everything easily available in public domain. Professionals with excellent background and solid expertise in the contemporary art world readily provide a well-informed analysis.

Of course, the key to successful collecting is to work out your approach towards buying or selling art. You may acquire art purely out of passion, enriching your precious collection irrespective of market conditions, or you may want to buy art for diversifying your investment portfolio. Whatever be the motive, it’s essentially a long term process. Being able to buy with a clear focus will turn the simple act of buying art into collecting art. Obviously, much depends on the optimum mix of both quantitative and qualitative research tools coupled with an in-depth knowledge of how the contemporary art markets work.

Then there are issues like documentation and provenance papers, sale deeds, certificates of authenticity, art insurance etc. There are parameters, which serve as the basis for measuring the influence of intangible valuation drivers, such as provenance and irrational premium. All these aspects have made the role of the gallery owners and dealers that much more critical.

Thought provoking art displays at Tate Modern

A new display at Tate Modern explores the ways in which five contemporary artists have used the camera to explore, extend and question the power of photography as a documentary medium.

Consisting entirely of new acquisitions to Tate’s collection, it includes recent work by Luc Delahaye, Mitch Epstein, Guy Tillim and Akram Zaatari, as well as two important earlier works by Boris Mikhailov. Between them they cover subjects as diverse as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, studio photography in Beirut, elections in the Congo, everyday life in pre- and post-Soviet Ukraine, and power production in the United States. Each room concerns one discrete project, in which the artist calls into question the relationship between the documentary value of photography and the museum as its proper context.

Another significant body of work by US artist Taryn Simon draws its title from the series on a faceless person from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. ‘A Living Man Declared Dead & Other Chapters’ produced over a time span of four long years starting 2008, saw Simon crisscrossing across the globe, meticulously researching and documenting bloodlines and their related stories.

In each of the ‘chapters’ that collectively reflect the crux of the series, the external forces of circumstance, religion, territory or power collide with the internal forces of physical and psychological inheritance. The subjects documented include feuding families, victims of genocide in Bosnia, the sufferings of people in Brazil, and the ‘living dead’ in India.

Her pointed artistic comment, which maps the complex relationships among the various components of fate, is at once arbitrary and cohesive. Shivdutt Yadav’s depiction is a case in point. A column in The UK Independent by reviewer Laura McLean-Ferris explains: “The poor fellow discovered that he and his family members had been listed as dead; the land ownership transferred to other relations.

Simon has documented that they’re very much alive.” Among the images present on the footnote panel is something chilling, albeit attention-grabbing - A body, dead from leprosy floats in the River Ganges – one bleached white, the eyeballs swollen and pale, the face almost turned black with blood.

(Information courtesy: Tate Modern)

‘Bollywood Showcards at ROM, Canada

An off-beat exhibit, entitled ‘Bollywood Cinema Showcards: Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s’, is a vivacious visual journey through the history of Hindi movie advertising.

The Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) presents the North American debut of this show curated by Deepali Dewan. She elaborates, “The idea is to explore the evolution of a specific form of advertising associated with the Hindi commercial cinema. This combine of paint and photography encompasses a unique aspect of South Asian visual culture. They were originally produced by local artists but usually thrown out at the end of a film’s run. It is remarkable that this collection has survived at all.”

It’s a stunning array of vintage Bollywood cinema showcards and other forms of film advertising that has been assembled for the first time in Canada. Using a combination of photo collage and hand painting, local artisans used their imagination to create dynamic interpretations of scenes from Bollywood films. Almost 125 pieces are on display, featuring star celebrities in popular movies from India's colorful film history.

The ROM strives to increase understanding of the interdependent domains of cultural and natural diversity, their relationships, significance, preservation, and conservation. The Museum was established by an Act of the Ontario Legislature in April 1912. Annually, it welcomes over a million visitors. The ROM can accommodate up to 1.6 million visitors a year, including 215,000 students.

The ROM wished to put all of its major collections on permanent display, as well as increase the number of objects within each gallery. The expansion and renovation project, known as Renaissance ROM, generates new and renovated exhibition and gallery spaces, and showcases the collections in more comprehensive and dynamic ways. After Renaissance ROM, the Museum has an additional 80,000 square feet of public space. The project also renovated about 75% of the public spaces in the historic buildings.

(Information courtesy: The ROM, Canada)

‘The Word of God Series’

The third installment in ‘The Word of God Series’ at The Andy Warhol Museum located in Pittsburgh, which examines major world religions and their texts through contemporary art, is currently featuring works by Chitra Ganesh.

An explanatory note to ‘The Word of God(ess)’mentions: “Sacred texts are considered by many to be the direct words of God to man. How this Word is passed down and received is dependent on the people, languages and cultures in which it is presented! The works explore the questions like: what is the best version of the Word of God; and does the artistic rendering of it enhance understanding or is some essential truth lost in translation?”

A 21 part piece, ‘Tales of Amnesia’, is based on Amar Chitra Katha, a popular comic strip. It’s a testimony to the artist’s practice that combines an array of visual languages, curious cannons and diverse cultures, including Bollywood cinema, comic books, iconic Hindu goddesses etc. The artist creates cross-cultural narratives about sexuality and power that may smartly fit in comic book frames wherein interior thoughts are revealed in bubbles or hover in psychedelic space - as in her wall installations- with three-dimensional elements that tend to protrude into contemporary reality.

A couple of years ago, her wall creation at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center located at Long Island City, NY was also very much appreciated. It is considered among the largest and the oldest non-profit contemporary art institutions in the US that acts as a catalyst for new ideas, trends, and discourses in contemporary art.

The work at P.S.1 lobby by this versatile and innovative Indian artist features elements in India and Sumi inks, washes of color, cut paper and found objects such as plastic fruits, fake hair, and sequins. Chitra Ganesh’s work is a mix of separate productive moves that work in a perfect harmony. Even while firmly rooted in a Western, postmodern discourse, her cultural references allow her to convey the proven principle of a multiplicity as a spirit that draws together.

‘Erasing Borders: Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora’

Eight years ago, the very first contemporary art event of the New York-based Indo-American Arts Council brought to people’s attention that there are artists of Indian origin in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The area has one of the largest concentrations of South Asians in the United States.

‘Erasing Borders: Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora’ includes sculpture, video and installation art on view at Manhattan’s Aicon Gallery. All 43 featured artists, including renowned abstract expressionist painter Natvar Bhavsar, are connected to South Asia.

According to Aroon Shivdasani, the council’s executive director, the selection process was made a lot more inclusive last year. “Rather than limiting it to people of Indian origin—because you know, that’s so nebulous—we opened it up to the entire subcontinent,” she stated.

“When we first had our exhibition, years ago, artists sent work thinking we wanted them to deliberately trace their roots. But now, increasingly, you see that people are people – especially since so many of us have spent years in our adopted lands. Their art may be something that harks from their heritage, but it may also be a part of their life today.”

For 27-year old Sara Suleman a Temple University graduate student who was born and raised in Pakistan, the exhibition’s expansion is a chance to showcase her video art, centered on concepts like displacement and transition.

Young participants, like Sonia Chaudhary see this exhibition as an opportunity to push past these borders. Growing up in a tight-knit Muslim community in suburban Connecticut, Ms. Chaudhary regularly struggled with two seemingly opposing community dynamics. “There were the teachings I encountered, going to the masjid with my mom every Sunday, and then the American school system, where I was told I should really question where I’m coming from to find out who I am,” she said in a recent phone interview.

(Information courtesy: The WSJ, By Aarti Virani)

Know the secrets of Charles Saatchi's success as a collector

Averse to grabbing spotlight, Charles Saatchi seldom attends the openings of exhibits at his own gallery. His practice of acquiring works of emerging artists has proved contagious, arguably the greatest influence on the contemporary market. Several other new investors and even veteran collectors are following his lead. However, the maverick collector does not like to give interviews and, if he does so, he says as little as possible.

What is it that he looks for before buying a work? Is there any logic or pattern to what he buys and sells? Does he hold himself responsible for the speculative touch to today’s art market? If you wish to get an insight into the world’s most influential art expert’s mindset and philosophy, ‘My Name Is Charles Saatchi And I Am An Artoholic’ (164 pages; Publishers: Phaidon Press) is a must read for you. It reveals almost everything you want to know about the maverick collector and the mad ad-man.

What is his secret of collecting, investing and buying art? In one of the rare elaborate interviews, he reveals: “Artists need all kinds of collectors, buying their art. I never think too much about the market. I don't mind paying three or four times the market value of a work that I really want. As far as taste is concerned, I primarily buy art in order to show it off. So it's important for me that the public respond to it in particular and contemporary art in general. There is no logic or pattern I can rely on to decide what to sell and when to sell it.”

Incidentally, the pre-eminent collector of his generation, will be gifting over 200 artworks from his personal collection as well as the world-renowned Saatchi Gallery to the nation. He still possesses hundreds of pieces that will be handed to his family. The works to be donated to MOCA London are valued over £25m at their current market value.

Artistic quest to explore architectural spaces

Through her introspective work, Pooja Iranna presents manmade structures that allude to human beings, their mind, emotions and expressions, sans any apparent signs of physical existence.

An accompanying note by Ina Puri to her latest exhibition at Palette Art Gallery explained: “The artist remains grounded to her architectural spaces, exploring the possibilities with which humans have extended their creative mind. She as an artist believes that we have reached our zenith when it comes to expressing our ingenuity. There is no stone unturned as humans have successfully managed to use their cultural and technical knowhow along with positive energies, to conceive the unthinkable.

“Here she goes beyond the human genius and beauty of the spaces created. There is a twist to all the tales she expresses. Everything is not to be seen at the surface level. There are hidden notions behind every wall and the heavy texture. The not so straight partitions and the visible curvatures all denote the concealed part of life.”The crux of the matter here is that life/surfaces/spaces do have in-built twists and turns, but it all depends on the human mind and its intrinsic strength of how one responds to them.

Hers is a quest to explore architectural spaces. Bringing out the essence of her work, critic Deeksha Nath mentions: “It's not so implausible to consider poetry, architecture and art together, for their interest with form, their usage of meter or structure, and their stance toward their environments. They involve our perception and how that perception is translated into a created, or built, environment.

“The artist inserts into this triangulation us - human beings, the creators and receptors of such activities. It (the human presence) is not the central visual character of her work but present more in essence, a viewer whose awareness of self gets heightened by the lack of others.”