The global financial crisis may have hit the art markets of New York and London, but according to experts in New Delhi, the Indian market is going strong. They’ve been attending the second exhibition of the India Art Summit.

Even before the art summit opened formally, quite a few of the participating galleries had sold their inventory.

The first gallery to sell its artwork was the Aicon Gallery, which has branches in New York and London.

They admit that it has been a tough year, with the global slowdown causing art lovers to restrain their spending.

But as many as 17 galleries from around the world are exhibiting at the India Art Summit.

Experts say the current situation presents an opportunity for these galleries to add new clients in emerging markets like India and China.

Anders Petterson said, “I think for foreign galleries, there is obviously a lot of opportunity to start building up new collector base or new clientele, you know, with the Western world- both US and Europe- dramatically slowing down and as I mentioned, both China and India offers new opportunities. I think there is, I think this shift will probably start moving. The Asian economies will be more attractive for Western Galleries going forward and we see that both in terms of Asian Art Fairs in China and and here in India. So, I think that’s a trend that will continue.”

Another work that was snatched up by an international museum was one from Indian-born artist, Anish Kapoor’s. It was the first time Anish Kapoor’s work was exhibited in India.

Besides being the single largest showcase of Indian art, the India Art Summit is also the first major exposition of international art in the country.

An important objective of the summit is its focus on education and raising awareness about art.

Associate director Neha Kirpal said, “Galleries here recognize the potential of the domestic market and they recognize that somebody has to come together and then cultivate those buyers within the market and this move the investment that everybody has made is completely rationalizing that. I think everybody here looks at this as a move to build a healthier art ecosystem, less volatile there has been a huge price correction but overall, the market seems to be picking up again. There is trade that has happened in the last two days and phenomenal trade.”

At the entrance of the India Art Summit, there is a 600-square-meter open air sculpture park with large-scale sculptures that aim to create a dialogue with the audience.

There is also a Video Lounge which houses 99 video works by Indian and foreign artists.

According to the organizers, last year, the fair sold about 50 percent of the art on display, and attracted 10,000 art enthusiasts from India and overseas.

The post Indian art market lifted by financial crisis first appeared on Indian Art News.

You know times are hard when the usually circumspect representatives of the Indian art market speak out of their combined pains. Until recently,they struggled to accept the arrival of a slump in the market, ostrich-like even as world over bellwether auctions registered tepid bidding and pivotal art fairs saw poor attendance. However, at a recently held panel discussion in Mumbai on ‘Growth strategies for a recovering art market,’ two points were driven home: that the Indian art market is not out of the woods yet and that passiveness is unacceptable.

Sree Goswami of Project 88, a gallery dedicated to upcoming contemporary artists, says there was a period recently where for four months the gallery had barely any footfalls. Contemporary art coming out of emergent art markets like Indian and China that in the boom time fuelled a feeding frenzy, has today become the global art market’s fall guy. Confidence levels in the contemporary art market have fallen 81 percent since May 2008 and may take between three and five years to recover, according to a global survey by research company ArtTactic.

“When an event causes a seismic shift you must react,” says Ranjit Hoskote, curator and art critic, “only the paranoid survive.” Paranoia could mean brutal cost cutting or selling at discounted prices, as some dealers quietly resorted to. For Maithili Parekh, deputy director Sotheby’s, paranoia is better channelled into reflection, readjustment and eventually regrouping. “We will have to re-look at prices,” agrees Shireen Gandhy of Gallery Chemould in Mumbai.

There’s room for introspection for both artists and dealers. “During the boom you’d hear of artists spending as little as a month producing works for a solo show,” laments Gandhy. As were there dealers who, far removed from their role of regulating supply by careful selection and editing, were pricing art so aggressively that it was inevitable that prices should fall back sharply. “Careful thought needs to be paid to how one builds and manages value in a rush to raise prices,” says Hoskote.

Amid despair there have been a few heartening signs. Kolkata is to have its own Museum Of Modern Art modelled on the lines of MOMA in New York. The National Gallery of Modern Art is pursuing a process of reinvigoration. And there is the India Art Summit (Aug 19-22), for which the panel discussion was a precursor of sorts. In its second year, the venue has been expanded three-fold with 54 participant galleries as compared to last year’s 34. Several dealers are pinning their hopes on the buzz they hope its marketing machinery will create.

One of the more lasting impacts of the summit will be its International speakers’ forum that will bring together artists, scholars, museum directors et al to discuss the most pertinent issues surrounding the global art scene. “As an emerging art market we have to sustain a knowledge infrastructure which will have multiplying effects beyond the economic actors,” says Hoskote. For that, all agree, India needs more art journalism and more art in the public domain in the form of museums and art schools, and that’s where the government can come in.

One subject that will find its way into the Summit’s discourse is that of common guidelines for fair practises. Over the past few years, the line between the activities of galleries and auction houses has become increasingly blurred with criticisms being raised about auction houses also playing in the primary market, sometimes sourcing directly from contemporary artists. Internationally, Christie’s acquisition of London art gallery Haunch of Venison raised an outcry. China and India though are emerging markets where these boundaries haven’t been defined, so efforts to impose ethical standards may be harder.

Of course, there is every chance this bottoming out will do a great deal of good, not just for the examination of the complex dynamics of an emerging contemporary art market but also the quality of art. “People say some of the worst art was created in the boom of 2005-06 because artists were overproducing,” says Gandhy. “So perhaps the best art will be made in 2009-11?

The post The art of recovery in a slow market first appeared on Indian Art News.

The statement said the fair would be India’s first industry platform for art and art works and would include paintings, sculptures, photography, mixed media, video, prints, installations and drawings. A special collector’s preview will be held August 22.

The fair will also include in-depth panel discussions and seminars on Indian art by acclaimed Indian and international speakers at an “art forum” on the second day of the fair.

The summit, according to the statement, has generated considerable interest among international art enthusiasts, buyers and collectors, who are seeing it as India’s initiative in the world art fair circuit and also as the single-most important access point to Indian art.

The Indian art fraternity, according to the organisers, is excited to have a platform, which enables stakeholders from India and around the world to come together and discuss the creative and commercial aspects of Indian art. Several personalities from the international art world will be at the fair.

Indian art, which has been evolving as a historically-documented genre for the last 9,000 years, today is an industry worth Rs.150 billion annually. It is currently growing at 30-35 percent and has exploded by 485 percent in the last decade, making it the fourth most buoyant market in the world.

The post India to hold biggest-ever art summit in August first appeared on Indian Art News.