Gaining ground

June is always a busy month for Indian art lovers in London, as both Sotheby's and Christie's hold their annual South Asian Art auctions dur...

June is always a busy month for Indian art lovers in London, as both Sotheby8217;s and Christie8217;s hold their annual South Asian Art auctions during that period. But this year proved to be busier than most as records were broken at both sales. At the Sotheby8217;s Contemporary and South Asian Paintings auction, an Abdur Rahman Chugtai went for 34,500 pounds when the estimated sale price was between 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds. Christie8217;s saw the same surge in prices when it sold an Akbar Padamsee for 15,525 pounds against the estimated range of 8,000 pounds to 12,000 pounds.

But there were further shocks in store. The non-Indian buyers at both auctions vastly outnumbered the Indian buyers. Says Amrita Jhaveri of Christie8217;s, quot;We had a greatly increased response from non-Indians with many paintings being bought by English and American buyers.quot; Both Christie8217;s and Sotheby8217;s sold about 60 per cent of their stock 8212; not a great increase on last year but still a pleasing result. quot;Slow and steady is the best wayforward. If we had a sudden sharp increase we may have been a bit worried. But the auction has proved that the market has broadened as many buyers were not Indian,quot; says Savita Apte of Sotheby8217;s.

Though new colours have been added to the consumer profile, the auction houses haven8217;t yet put their fingers on the preferred tastes of these connoisseurs. Despite being five years in the Indian art auction business, success is still a result of trial and error. According to Apte, early Bengal school painters like Madhoor Kapur and Sakti Burman seem to be the emerging favourites. quot;People are not so concerned with big names anymore,quot; she says. A definite sign that the market abroad is maturing.

Another big shock at both auctions was buyers cold-shouldering works by formerly popular artists. For instance, some Husain8217;s did not sell at all while others sold for below the estimated price. quot;I was really surprised when the only Laxman Shreshta in our collection, which was going for a song, wasn8217;t even bidded for,quot;says Apte.

However others like Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh took Sotheby8217;s by surprise when the bidding started to resemble a film set. Edge of the seat excitement swept the closed room as one private Pakistani bidder pitted his might against a private English buyer. After a tense bout of almost five minutes, the Sheikh finally went home with the Pakistani collector 8212; for 17,825 pounds! While the Englishman may have lost this painting, his fellow countrymen walked off with most of the art up for sale. The English emerged as serious buyers this year with a lot of first-time bidders making their presence felt.

While Sotheby8217;s popped the champagne corks to celebrate this phenomenal sale, Apte feels that the success must be taken with a pinch of salt. She feels that there is still time before Contemporary Indian Art can become mainstream in other countries. In fact, the Colonial art received a much better response than works of Contemporary Indian artists. The Christie8217;s Visions of India auction ofRaj-related works of art sold 85 per cent of its lots. quot;The reason for this is that there is better documentation on this period of art than on Contemporary Indian Art. How many Indian artist8217;s works have been written about in books. It is difficult to educate people on an art form when there is no literature about it,quot; says Apte. But she maintains that the awareness of Contemporary Indian Art will continue growing, eventually putting Indian artists in the same arena as American and European ones.