THE new year always brings with it a flurry of calendars and diaries. In the last few years, more and more of them have featured art most directly, typically paintings or, on occasion, sculpture. Just in 2004, a quick count points to at least eight very well-known organisations, government and otherwise, and galleries that have used art in their products. Of these, seven have used contemporary art. There are likely to be others too. Are we seeing a trend creep onto our desks and walls? Indications suggest we are. How come? The most straightforward explanation is to do with marketing art. For galleries and museums this makes sense, because it allows those who may not be inclined to visit them, to at least be exposed to the kind of work they sell. They are in it for the long haul. And with business houses now increasingly buying and gifting art, devices like calendars, that enhance recall value, are non-intrusive marketing strategies to build a clientele. But then there is the ‘new’ patronage, which is much more complex. A government airline, for example, has brought out a calendar based on its own collection. Last year, it put out one based on the brilliant contemporary miniatures of the London-based Kaur sisters, as it also carried their works for shows in India. In a jiffy, the calendars suggest the airline is ‘‘a purveyor of good and refined taste’’. In general, such moves polish up the image of their conjurers, creating a greater, more desirable pool of people who begin to compete for this patronage (or wish to continue it). The company, thus, compounds its own authority and interests. There is more, though. Gallery-based art, which is usually the basis of these calendars, has, for a number of reasons, moved from being confined to an elite quarter to a less elite one. Not only is this shift based on affordability, but on interest and at least, a little knowledge. Bottomline: readers realise that it is fashionable to know a little more about art, just as it is to enjoy wine and cheese and the Mont Blanc, popping out of almost every bureaucratic pocket these days. (“I love Arpi’s new work, yaar. Her use of texture is amazing.”) So there is an audience that appreciates—well, not quite art itself, but the fact that art ought to evoke their interest, ie it’s haute.
