Rare View

Before the Summit opens on January 20,she will take possession of Hall No 18,at Pragati Maidan,where artwork will be showcased in booths; a sculpture garden will be designed and eminent international art personalities — including artist Anish Kapoor,Hans Ulrich Obrist,co-director of Serpentine Gallery,London,Homi Bhabha,director of the Humanities Center,Harvard University and Sheena Wagstaff,chief curator,Tate Modern — will be part of the Speakers Forum.

In a first for the festival,MF Husain’s artwork will finally be showcased. Three of his canvases and a watercolour will be on sale at the 120 meters stall of the Delhi Art Gallery. This includes his 1990 6.5 x 6 ft canvas Karachi,featuring a self-portrait alongside his famous galloping horses and a Ganesha watercolour. “We keep our best work for the Summit. After all,the number of people we have here in an hour is more than the number that visit the gallery in a year,” says Ashish Anand,director,Delhi Art Gallery. Placed adjacent to Husain’s artworks will be works of 29 other prominent artists,including FN Souza,SH Raza,GR Santosh,Jamini Roy and Bhupen Khakhar.

Vadehra Art Gallery,meanwhile,has opted for two stalls. In the solo projects section it will showcase the work of Pors and Rao and a booth in the general section will comprise work of eight artists,including A Ramachandran,Arpita Singh,Atul Dodiya,Rameshwar Broota and Shilpa Gupta. “We work with a range of artists,so this is only representative,” says Parul Vadehra,director,Vadehra Art Gallery,who will also be handing the FICA FeedStation,a public art project,where artist Abhishek Hazra,along with his team,will blog and put updates from the summit on the internet.

Among others,Latitude 28 will bring together the work of Anupam Sud and her grandson Kartik Sood. “It is a platform to build new contacts. People can get an overview of Indian art,” says Bhavna Kakar,director,Latitude 28. Also at her booth,Prajjwal Choudhury will reflect on consumerism in his sculptural work titled Desire is destroyed with the destruction of desire,and Delhi-based Rajesh Ram,projects the plight of starry-eyed migrants who end up as bonded laborers in the city.

“The Summit brings a transparency to the business of art,” says Tunty Chauhan,director,Gallery Threshold,who has shortlisted the work of Shanti Swaroopini,V Ramesh,Ved Gupta and Kishore Chakraborty,for the event. “We sold several works to prestigious museums at the last Summit,” she adds.

Sunaina Anand of Art Alive Gallery feels that the change of timing,to January,from August – when it was held till last year – will work in its favour. “It’s a better time for Westerners to visit,” says Anand,who will have works of

SH Raza,Shakti Burman,Thota Vaikuntam,Yusuf Arakkal,Laxma Goud,PR Daroz and the younger Sharmi Chowdhury,Kiyomi Talaulicar and UK-based Singh Twins. Kirpal has her fingers crossed — she has galleries from 20 countries participating. In its last edition,the fair recorded a sale of Rs 26 crore. This year,the figure can only go up.