A Progressive Bet
Affectionately known as the Progressive Artists Group,the modern artists are still the big daddies in the Indian art market. Heres why.
It is auction time again and the art mart is waiting for some action,hoping for some new records and for the hammer to come down more regularly. With not much activity in the art circuit during the last few months,the safest bet,it seems,is the Progressive Artists Group (PAG) and their associates,who are being banked upon to deliver hits in the art mart. After all,the last big bang was SH Raza’s Saurashtra,that travelled from foreign shores back to its motherland,courtesy Kiran Nadir,who paid a whopping 16.4 crore for the oil on canvas at a Christie’s auction last year.
Not much might have entered the record books since then,but auction houses are hopeful and are trying their luck with the masters. In a bid to offer works of renowned artists at reasonable prices,Saffronart opted for paper works of FN Souza,MF Husain,HA Gade,Tyeb Mehta,Akbar Padamsee,Ram Kumar,VS Gaitonde and Krishen Khanna,at an auction that took place on July 21. Talking about the selection,Dinesh Vazirani,director of Saffronart,says,“The idea of having an auction around paper works is to usher in new buyers,who would like to pick up a work that is both affordable and has the gravitas of a senior artist behind it.” The results were encouraging. While Mehta was at the top,garnering close to Rs 19 lakh for his untitled floating head,VS Gaitonde’s work sold for Rs 17.9 lakh. The late maverick,MF Husain’s work sold for Rs 12.6 lakh and FN Souza,who is known to dominate the auction scene,came number four,with Rs 12.3 lakh.
Incidentally,the last auction held by Christie’s in London,in June 2011,also saw Tyeb Mehta hit a record sale price of 1.97 million Euros (Rs 12.41 crore),for his untitled figure on rickshaw. Husain also saw sales at the same auction,though it was not record-breaking.
For writers and academics who screamed themselves hoarse on how important this group of artists are,the result did not come as a surprise. “When the country was emerging from its colonial shackles and the idea of nationhood was being formulated,the PAG and their associates were painting to reflect this change,” says art critic Geeta Kapoor,pointing out that these artists were present at a very important time in history.
Roshini Vadehra,director of Vadehra Art Gallery,believes that the absence of international players has brought about this dominance of the PAG. “When collectors from the US and Europe stepped in,they set the trend of collecting contemporary,because that is what they related to better. Now that their economy is in a recession,many of these buyers have fallen off the radar. Hence,moderns are safer investments,” says Vadehra. Bhavana Khakar,director of Latitude 28,adds,“People who earlier supported the contemporaries are now asking me for moderns. Collectors with their eye on investment seem to have no loyalty to support new artists.”
The fact that most members of the erstwhile group are now aging is also affecting the market price of their work. “Some of the members of the group have passed away and their works are scarce in the market,” says art historian and curator Yashodhara Dalmia,who has written extensively about PAG in two of her books,The Making of Modern Art: The Progressives and Four Generations Of Indian Artists In Their Own Words.
There are others who aren’t sure about banking on the works of the masters as an investment though. “Acquiring paper works of modern masters makes for great collectibles,but is not necessarily a great investment. Collectors have a longer life and appreciation,” says Durva Gandhi,director of Breathe Arts,
an online art portal that sells Indian art. One of Gandhi’s online exhibitions,Drawing with the Mind,however featured line drawings by Souza,indicating that no matter what the art pundits may say,some trends are hard to change.
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