Positive indicators for Indian art scene

In a major boost to India’s art market, the overall Confidence Indicator of ArtTactic has increased by 10 percent in the time period between May 2012 and October 2012, currently standing at 57 (up from the previous 52). The Indicator for the Modern art market of the country stands unchanged at 71, whereas the confidence in the segment of Contemporary art has gone up 12 percent from 39 to an impressive 44. Though still below the psychological level of 50, the key Expectation Indicator for India’s Contemporary art market is at 53, signaling broadly a positive outlook for this segment in the coming 6 months.

Overall Indian art auction volume for both for Modern and Contemporary stood at $11,424,094, 33 percent up from June 2012, and in line with the results a year ago. One of the key contributing factors to these results was Sotheby’s apparent ability to lead a comeback after poor June sale that took place in London, only raising $606,515. Despite falling 32 percent short of the pre-sale estimate, it did help to lift the sales total markedly beyond the previous two auction seasons.

The market remains rather conservative, and though this season has showed encouraging signs in the contemporary segment, the last auction round returned to the far more established Modern area, with contemporary lots managing to account just 14 percent of the number of lots and only 5 percent of the total value. In fact, the top 10 lots made up 46 percent of the sale, with artworks by Husain accounting for 5 of the top 10 prices attained. Tyeb Mehta is an artist who continues to command the best prices, with his ‘Falling Figure with Bird’ fetching $1,629,091. It made up 14 percent of total sales for the top three houses. Another work by him went for $600,000 (the 3rd highest hammer price recorded this season).

ArtTactic, a firm founded by Anders Petterson in 2001 has developed analytical frameworks and methodologies for the market often used by people in top financial markets and economists. It offers an added dimension to market analysis by collating both quantitative and qualitative research tools with a deep knowledge of how it works.

‘India’s largest contemporary public art event’

Listing the Kochi-Muziris Biennale among the top cultural events to be seen and visited this year, The Forbes magazine had mentioned it as ‘India’s largest contemporary public art event that will display some of the best works by international artists ranging from film installation to painting sculpture, new media and performance art – an event aimed at recreating the cultural legacy of the modern day Kochi and its mythical predecessor — the ancient port Muziris.’

The Wall Street Journal columnist Margherita Stancati had earlier stated in a news article: “Artists and art lovers often complain that not enough is being done to promote contemporary art in the country outside a commercial framework. As a result, the room for discourse on contemporary art in India has so far been relatively limited. We need to create that space, according to Riyas Komu. The start date for the event - a ‘first step’ in that direction’ - has been set: a prophetic 12/12/12. The idea behind it is to provide a platform for contemporary art in India that is neither a gallery not a trade fair.”

The Kochi-Muziris Biennale aims at creating a new idiom of cosmopolitanism combined with modernity rooted in the lived and living experience of an ancient trading port, which, for over six centuries, has been a crucible of many communal identities, apart from creating a comprehensive platform for contemporary Indian art. An introductory note elaborates: “It will introduce contemporary international visual art theory and practice to India, showcase and debate new Indian and international aesthetics and art experiences and enable a dialogue among artists, curators, and the public; it seeks to reflect the new confidence of Indian people who are slowly, but surely, building a new society that aims to be liberal, inclusive, egalitarian and democratic.”

The time has come to tell the story of cultural practices distinct to the Indian people and local traditions, practices and discourses shaping the idea of India, it emphasizes.

Where's Indian art market headed?

What are the observations made by the world-renowned research agency, Art Tactic, in its recent report about Indian art scene?

• For the Modern Indian art market, 29 percent of the observers think it will only go up in the next few months (in comparison to 30 percent in May 2012), whereas 60 percent are confident that the market will stay largely flat (70 percent in May 2012), and 11 percent feel the market will perhaps fall back. Although 41 percent of them opine the Modern art market of India has recovered, or will improve within the next year, 33 percent of the experts believe that it will need two more years at least for a broader recovery.

• For the Contemporary art market, 25 percent of the experts believe the market will go up (10 percent in May 2012), 52 percent believe the market will remain flat (down from 82 percent) and 23 percent of the experts believe the market will fall (up from 8 percent). This indicates a quarter of the experts believe the Indian contemporary art market will see a positive development in the next 6 months. With the Kochi Biennale in December and the India Art Fair slated to take place in early 2013, there are some major international events that could put Indian contemporary art market back on top collectors’ agendas in the months ahead.

• With the Chinese contemporary art market showing apparent signs of slowdown since Spring 2011, it’s likely that collectors will start gradually shifting elsewhere. In this context, analysts of the agency feel Indian contemporary art will start to regain some of the lost ground relative to its powerful neighbors.

Art Tactic is a world-renowned art market analysis resource that offers responsive research as well as in-depth commentary on the ever-changing and fast-paced art market. As new zones emerge on the scene and tastes evolve, it has employed elaborate expertise and vast network to ensure fruitful art investments that stay well ahead of the curve, supported by updated information from across the globe.

A grand art event that takes a cue from the global biennales

Slated to be held in various historic venues in Kerala, The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is a significant development on the contemporary art of India. The vision of its futuristic organizers, set to come into reality, envisions India’s first major biennale event of a global scale and scope, emulating those in Berlin, Liverpool, Venice and Dakar. They intend a grand showcase of projects, events and exhibitions involving world renowned artists across a wide variety of mediums like painting, sculpture, installation, new media, film and performance art.

The Biennale is essentially a reminder of glorious history. It looks to connect modern art practices to the heritage of Kochi as well as its mythical past. The history of the port alongside the Muziris Heritage or conservation project will infuse meaning and enhanced value to the entire showcase. Muziris area, specifically Kodungallur and Paravur, will serve as sites for public displays of sculptures. Kochi is among the few Indian cities where pre-colonial traditions of captivating cultural pluralism still flourish. They pre-date the post-Enlightenment concepts of cultural pluralism, multiculturalism and globalization that can be traced to Muziris.

The site is currently under excavation, and it’s vital to explore and also retrieve the past memories in context of the present status, in order to posit alternatives to cultural and political discourses emanating from the specific histories of America and Europe. With it, a dialogue for a new aesthetics and politics deeply enmeshed in the very Indian experience, albeit open to the winds blowing in from far-away worlds, is well possible, the organizers believe.

The KMB communications director, Michelangelo Bendandi, has been quoted as saying “The biennale is a multi-discipline festival of contemporary art, and it is city-wide, so the artists participating are not restricted to the large enclosed venues. Murals, street art, sound pieces and projections will be located in public places around the city, not just at biennale venues.”

A way of questioning reality

His peculiar protagonist is a universal character, cutting across physical boundaries, an urban man hemmed in by the unemotional world. He epitomizes the gross injustice of all systems ironically devised for the common people and seldom raises a murmur of protest.

The ubiquitous human figures recurring in Sunil Padwal’s paintings arrive in a similar mode - building it in & out of the surface. Sans any superfluous details, they involve elaborate and dramatic usage of materials. However, these faceless and voiceless figures now resurface as proactive participants, validating their presence in the composition, revealing the mystery of their form. Through them, the sensitive artist channelizes his angst at social injustices and ills on canvases that he describes as a monologue, an intense and personal commentary on everyday sufferings of our lives.

His most recent drawings – a way of questioning and looking at the reality of the noisy polluted fragile life of ours - were culmination of those layers of expressions intended to give the illusion of unspoken reflections. Although inspired by reality, they were semi-abstract and fictional -a metaphoric imagery letting way for hundreds of overlapping thoughts.

The sensitive artist's series showcased earlier this year was a curious blend of memory, our changing cityscape, and contrasting facets of modern society. The combination of all the hidden and complex layers made them semi abstract. Done over a time period of two years, it marked a departure from his earlier style - he employed a Rotring Pen for carving out the most intricate and meticulous, subtly experimenting with an array of base materials like glass, metal and mirrors.

Always keen to experiment, Sunil Pawal strives to challenge himself as an artist so as to avoid falling into a pattern, reinvent his technique, and set new parameters of creative excellence. For example, he has painted books made of wood with hand-painted cover, leaving the subject matter open to interpretation.

‘Sarai Reader 09’

A major art project curated by the renowned art group, Raqs Media Collective, is a collaboration between Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon along with Sarai Centre for Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi.

Sarai Reader 09 is a nine month exhibition unfolds as a process generative of visions, concepts, speculations and projections which, in turn, make room for heresy, for new modalities of being, for exchanges, relays and interferences. The exhibition posits a situation of shifting co¬-inhabitation in a space by many agents and actors, in diverse, multiple, conjoined and contradictory ways. An accompanying note states: "It intends to investigate the nature of theensation of thinking, and its resonating extensions into the myriad worlds that we inhabit and invent." 

It opened a couple of months ago with Architectural interventions in the space of art foundation, with Sayantan Maitra Boka and Zuleikha Chowdhary. These interventions created an ‘empty space’, and so, to open it to multiple readings and transformations by participating artists over the nine months of the exhibition.

The exhibition will be punctuated through ‘episodes’ – points of focus and dispersal – where processes that have been undertaken by artists will gather impetus and open out across concentrated moments of public attention. Each episode will be a day¬long public event, with workshops, performances, talks, discussions, special screenings and music.

Episode One: 13th October, 2012
Episode Two: 15th December, 2012
Episode Three: 3rd February, 2013

The exhibition takes its name from the Sarai Reader book series, which have been widely recognised as a site of critical and creative thinking. The making of the book ‘Sarai Reader 09 (Projections)’, will accompany the exhibition.

Sarai Reader 09 includes works gathered incrementally over the nine months. Artists, researchers, scholars, curators, critics, filmmakers, writers, performers, dancers, musicians, magicians, activists, scientists, photographers, archivists, architects, poets, journalists, and more, are invited to make proposals that can be timed for specific durations. The exhibition space will keep transforming. 

A proposal room, where proposals by artists for works in the exhibition, invited through an open call, is available for reading. At the opening, there were proposals by close to 40 artists for works that commenced after the opening. These will grow to over 100 proposals over the nine months..

Status report of Chinese contemporary art market

Confidence in the Chinese contemporary art market declined by 35% as the auction market there slowed down, a recent insightful report by Arttactic suggested. Following are the observations it made:

• Confidence in the Chinese contemporary art market looks increasingly fragile as the ArtTactic Chinese Art Market Confidence Indicator drops 35% from May 2012. The overall Confidence Indicator is now standing at 49, down from 76.
• This is the first time the Confidence Indicator has fallen into negative territory since the launch in February 2009. A reading of 49 (Indicator level below 50), means that the current sentiment in the Chinese contemporary art market is now split evenly between experts that remain positive about the market and those that feel increasingly pessimistic about the current market situation.
• However, this sudden dip in confidence could be short-lived, as the Expectation Indicator (current reading 58) sits 44% above the Current Indicator (reading of 40), which signals that the respondents are more positive about the next 6 months than they are today.
• Despite the negative trend in the market, the survey respondents remain highly positive (short- and long-term outlook) around a cluster of artists like Zhang Peili, Zhang Xiaogang, Ai Weiwei, Zhan Wang, Zhang Huan and Lin Tianmiao.
• Sotheby’s recent sales of Chinese art continued to illustrate the uncertainty in the Chinese art market. Sotheby’s Hong Kong autumn sales in October 2012 generated a total of $262 Million, a 18% drop from Spring 2012 and a 37% drop from last Autumn.
• The contemporary lots from Asian Contemporary sale and 20th Century Chinese Art sale achieved $12,250,160, less than half of this year’s Spring total and only accounted for 19% of the value in Spring 2011. The result fell 27% short of the low pre-sale estimate. The average price also dropped to $117,790, which is 44% lower than Spring 2012.
• The price segment analysis showed a weakness at the top-end of the market. There were only 2 lots, which sold above $$1 million, accounting for 35% of the total sale value. The threshold for entering into the Top 10 was previously $455,000, but it dropped to $260,000. The number of lots in the middle market ($100k-500k) also dropped significantly.