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Journalism of Courage
MF HUSAIN, Tyeb Mehta, FN Souza and VS Gaitonde. It8217;s difficult not to say their names in one breath without tripping over several zeros. Mehta8217;s triptych Celebration went for a whopping Rs 1.6 crore at last year8217;s Christie8217;s auction. A month later, Husain topped it off with Bijli, a triptych that sold to a private collector for Rs 2 crore.
Even though their prices dip occasionally8212;at this year8217;s Christie8217;s auction in New York, they fetched Rs 51.42 lakh and Rs 49.27 lakh, respectively8212;Mehta and Husain have auctions buzzing, in turn affecting gallery demand.
The market, however, is much more niche for other figurative painters of a stature8212;Ganesh Pyne, Jehangir Sabavala, Krishen Khanna and abstractionist HA Raza. Husain and Mehta8217;s contemporary, Sabavala8217;s colour balances have select appeal; Pyne8217;s smaller works don8217;t make it to the noisy league; and while almost everyone who collects art has an Anjolie Ela Menon, it8217;s a matter of time before her works appreciate in the market. Until then, it8217;s the 8216;8216;usual suspects syndrome8217;8217;, says Dinesh Vazirani of online auction house Saffron Art.
Does this mean that despite brisk business, the market isn8217;t ready for adventure? Not really. The recent Christie8217;s auction broke new ground with entrants like Bhupen Khakhar Rs 30.25 lakh. Within a month of his death, Khakhar8217;s price has shot up by Rs 27 lakh from
Rs 3 lakh8212;vying with seniors like abstractionist VS Gaitonde who died in 2001 and Souza, a figurative artist who died last year. Sounds callous, but nothing sells like a dead artist!
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Rarity also sells. 8216;8216;There are only two triptychs in Mehta8217;s oeuvre. No wonder the stakes are high,8217;8217; says Mallika Sagar, Christie8217;s India representative. So, how does one explain someone as prolific as Husain selling high? Simple! Top billing often goes to his 8216;superior8217; earlier works.
It8217;s a tricky game. What may appeal to one buyer might not move the other. So, everyone falls back on art dealers for the consensus. Popular Mumbai-based Osian8217;s Auction House is a big promoter of historicity.
Founder-chairman Neville Tuli points out, 8216;8216;Since 1997, the base of artists with a credible international financial market has increased significantly.8217;8217; What with exhibitions, residencies and, yes, auction houses driving home the point in the Big Apple, Amsterdam, Berlin and UK.
So, while younger artists like Laxman Shreshtha, Bose Krishnamachari, Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, Shibu Natesan and Paresh Maity in the Rs 3-5 lakh bracket may gain ground with auctions, most galleries tend to sell them at more realistic prices.
While other auction houses are busy raising the bids on contemporary artists, Osian8217;s is bringing it down their next introduces over one hundred emerging talents. 8216;8216;The estimated prices will be far lower,8217;8217; says Tuli who feels that many 8216;8216;young artists are damaging their careers by pricing themselves high, without context or care8217;8217;.
Mumbai-based Usha Mirchandani of the Fine Art Resource, a home-run gallery with its main branch in Berlin, agrees. Artists may rejoice at high sales at the auctions, but the prices are not always 8216;real8217;. In New York and Berlin, 8216;8216;there aren8217;t any queues for contemporary artists that I know of! But auctions create a demand and the prices are always higher than a gallery.8217;8217;
After all, before auction houses, there was the quiet wine tasting and discreet red dots. Also, collectors of yore like Rudy Von Layden who promoted the Bombay Progressives and MA Greenberg who first encouraged exhibitions abroad in the 8217;60s held sway.
Today, though US-based famed collectors Chester and Davida Herwitzs still have one of the best Husain collections, there8217;s a whole new breed mostly NRIs willing to pay a pretty price.
