Saffronart and the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) will hold a fundraiser auction on October 31 in support of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The KBF is a non-profit charitable trust engaged in promoting art and culture and educational activities in India. Saffronart, founded in 2000 by Minal and Dinesh Vazirani, has hosted almost 100 auctions.
Featuring artworks by more than 40 leading modern and contemporary artists, the net proceeds from the auction will benefit the efforts of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which showcases leading talent from India and around the world.

Most artworks on offer have no reserve price, and there will be no buyer’s premium on any of the lots.
Among the lots on offer are works by Amrita Sher-Gil, Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Manisha Parekh, Varunika Saraf, Vivan Sundaram, Thukral and Tagra, Atul Dodiya, G R Iranna, B Manjunath Kamath, Parvathi Nayar, Bharat Sikka, Pushpamala N, and international artist Francesco Clemente. Some of the artworks have been donated by the artists themselves, making them patrons of the Biennale. Most artists have been represented at previous editions of the Biennale.
The auction features an exciting mix of photographs, paintings, and sculptures. Among the highlights are two works on paper, dated 1927, by Amrita Sher-Gil.

Sher-Gil was one of India’s most important women artists of the 20th century. Her works are rare to come by, and it is rarer still, for two of her artworks to be offered in the same auction. Also on offer is Ascending (2017), by leading Italian contemporary artist Francesco Clemente.
Clemente, who first visited India in 1973, gained international fame when he participated in the Venice Biennale in 1970. His work has been shown at exhibitions around the world. Other auction highlights include T V Santhosh’s Uploads of a Survivor III (2013), Bharti Kher’s Duck Face (2016), Subodh Gupta’s Untitled (2017) — a stainless steel installation, and a set of two prints by Bharat Sikka (2014/15).
The auction highlights the efforts of Minal and Dinesh Vazirani as supporters of art and culture. As the official auction house associated with the Biennale, this is the second time that Saffronart is partnering with the Kochi Biennale Foundation for a fundraiser auction. The first edition of the auction was held in April 2015, where net proceeds amounted to over Rs2 crores. Nearly 93 per cent of the works sold, contributing to the funds needed to sustain the Biennale.
“As the largest art event in the country, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale has gained immense significance over the past three editions. Its efforts to enhance recognition and appreciation for emerging and established artists require the support of both the government and private institutions. Saffronart is proud to conduct the Kochi Biennale Foundation Fundraiser Auction, and support the Foundation in its fundraising efforts, ” said Dinesh Vazirani, who will conduct the auction at Saffronart Mumbai.
The auction is preceded by viewings in Mumbai. All lots can be viewed on saffronart.com once the catalog is available online. Bidding will take place in the room, online, on the phone, and on Saffronart’s mobile app.
The registration will begin at 7pm while the auction will kick off at 8 pm. Viewings are available from October 27-30, 11am to 7 pm, by appointment only.

For more details, log on to www.saffronart.com

Source http://gulfnews.com/culture/arts/auction-in-support-of-kochi-biennale-foundation-1.2112641

The post Auction in support of Kochi Biennale Foundation first appeared on Indian Art News.

The art market is getting ugly. Saffronart’s spring sale, which concluded two days ago, provided proof, if any was needed. Substantial works by M F Husain, S.H. Raza, F.N. Souza, Ram Kumar, Ganesh Pyne, Akbar Padamsee and Prabhakar Barwe among the moderns, and Atul Dodiya, Anju Dodiya, G R Iranna, Shibu Natesan (canvas pictured above) and Justin Ponmany among the contemporaries, failed to find bidders. It was a particularly disastrous auction for Raza, three of whose works were on offer, with high estimates of 20, 35 and 90 lakh rupees respectively. There was no interest anywhere close to those price points, and all three paintings had to be brought in.

Saffronart’s December 2008 sale, the first major auction in India after the crash of September-October 2008, was seen as a test for the market. Though that sale didn’t do spectacularly, failing to reach the low estimate in total value, there was something like a sigh of relief at the end. The predominant sentiment was it could have been much worse. Well, it is much worse now.

Consider these figures: In September 2006, Saffronart sold paintings and sculptures worth 15,964,190 dollars, or 68,64,60,170 rupees, with a high estimate for the sale pegged at 13,194,578 dollars, and a low estimate at 10,548,317 dollars. That was the biggest figure for a single sale it ever achieved. The market kept growing after that point, but the Bombay based auction house faced strong competition from Christie’s and Sotheby’s. In June 2008, when signs of a slowdown were visible, Saffronart garnered 9,721,241 dollars, or 38,88,49,620 rupees from its quarterly auction, still comfortably beating the low estimate of 6,759,000 dollars and high estimate of 8,343,125 dollars Three months later, just before the meltdown, the total value came down to 7,155,607 dollars, or 28,62,24,293 rupees, above the low estimate of 4,158,500 and high estimate of 5,298,000 dollars (these figures are not strictly comparable, because the auctions had a varying focus, sometimes concentrating on the moderns, at other times on a younger group of artists, but that’s irrelevant to the main thrust of this post).

The figure for the just completed March 2009 sale? A total winning value, inclusive of buyer’s premium, of 1,577,375 dollars, 7,88,68,725 rupees. In dollar terms, that’s more than 90% below the gross of the September 2006 sale; the rupee total looks a little better, just a little, because the dollar is currently trading at historically high levels against the Indian currency.

On the positive side, 69% of lots sold in the March sale, up from 63% three months previously, and not precipitously lower than the 80% achieved in September 2008 just before Lehman Brothers went under. That 69% figure shows Saffronart is realistic about what collectors are willing to pay at the moment, and has modified its estimates and reserve prices accordingly.

The conventional thing to say at this point is that buyers are becoming more selective. I’ve never believed that sort of thing happens. Yes, a canvas by the late abstractionist V.S. Gaitonde beat its $100,000 high estimate by 30%, and an early Jitish Kallat climbed to its low estimate of 20 lakh rupees (these sale prices include the buyer’s premium). But among the few high value lots that convincingly surpassed estimates were a B. Prabha and a Vaikuntam, proving that bad taste knows no recessions.

The post Saffronart’s Spring Auction Disappoints first appeared on Indian Art News.

Khushboo Narayan – THE MINT

Mumbai: An investigation into the business practices of Osian’s and Saffronart Management Corp., two of India’s premier art houses, has revealed several irregularities in their account books, including a possible attempt to rig the price of artworks and dupe investors, according to an income-tax (I-T) department official involved in the probe.The two houses—both set up in 2000—separately denied any wrongdoing, claiming all their transactions were transparent, well documented and in line with the law.Busted? Osian’s chairman Neville Tuli with a statue of Sean Connery. Tuli has denied allegations of any wrongdoing at the art house. Natasha Hemrajani / HTThe I-T department’s “appraisal report”, previewed by Mint, reveals that Osian’s had obtained fake purchase bills worth Rs15 crore for artworks. The department, which started a probe into alleged tax evasion in 2007, questioned three persons who provided Osian’s with such bills and admitted they were fake, the official said.“Fake purchase bills can be used to inflate the price of art by lesser known artists. This is the easiest form of manipulation of prices in the art world. The technique is similar to that used in the stock market to rig the share prices of any company,” said the official, who didn’t want to be named. Art houses can use these fictitious purchase bills to set an inflated benchmark price for works by artists, causing genuine investors to pay more, according to the official. “Some of the art galleries have inflated the price of certain artists up to as much as 700%,” the official said. The assessment wing of the I-T department in Mumbai is evaluating the extent of suspected tax evasion by the two houses.On Saffronart, the report said the art house had paid royalty to an associate firm, Planet Saffronart Management Corp., in the British Virgin Islands, to reduce its tax liability. The report also said Planet Saffronart had given Rs11 crore to Saffronart for acquiring its intellectual property rights. Also See Under Suspicion The department investigated such transactions and found them not in line with the law, said the official. “We have also found a lot of cash transactions in Saffronart,” he said.The report also said at least 18 investors, who had invested Rs10 lakh and above each in Osian’s Art Fund, could not explain the source of the money they had put in the fund.An art fund is like a mutual fund where investors do not pick the individual investment vehicles and instead invest in a pool of artworks. Typically, high net worth individuals invest in such funds. The minimum investment in some funds is pegged at Rs25 lakh.The I-T department has alleged that Osian’s was involved in synchronized trading and rigging of prices of art.
In an emailed response to Mint queries, Neville Tuli, Osian’s chairman, said: “The allegations are false and defamatory. The so-called Rs15 crore fake purchases are absolutely incorrect. These transactions were made to Gallery 7, a 20-year-old gallery, and (an) associate art dealer called Rashesh Shah, for purchase of artworks by artists such as J. Swaminathan, S.H. Raza, Ramkumar, A. Padamsee, V.S. Gaitonde, Jogen Chowdhury, Atul Dodiya, among others.“Like with many galleries and dealers, they told us that they would like to directly invoice Osian’s from their client’s company, as they do not own the artwork. We were told that the client will pay them their commission. All transactions were fully paid in cheque and all artworks physically handed over to Osian’s.”According to Tuli, the I-T department two years later told Osian’s that these clients of Gallery 7 and Shah were not genuine art collectors but benami parties. “We have never dealt with Gallery 7 and Shah thereafter.” A benami transaction includes any deal in which an asset is transferred to one person for a consideration paid or provided by another person.“Gallery 7 has no correlation with any claims made by Osian’s. We clearly state that there has been no involvement of Gallery 7 in any kind of transaction with Osian’s in the past few years. The claims are totally absurd and preposterous,” said Nicholas Sachdev, partner, Gallery 7.Sachdev said Shah was an independent art dealer and not a part of Gallery 7. “Being an art gallery we refer a lot of clients to auction houses but we have not done transactions on behalf of any client or received commissions,” Sachdev said.Mint could not ascertain the whereabouts of Shah.Tuli also said, “There is no question at all of Osian’s creating bogus turnover or synchronized trading to rig up prices. It is totally against our ethos and the very reason why we exist. Naturally, there are many people who bought art for investment and hence reselling is part of the process. That is absolutely normal.”On investments in the Osian’s Art Fund, Tuli said, “Every investor filled up a detailed form with PAN (permanent account number) and bank account details, bank references and all legal requirements. Every document was given to the authorities; every payment was in full cheque. Your claim is absolutely not true.”According to him, the success of the Osian’s Art Fund had upset many. “Many fear that art funds will soon become public platforms, and so help further destroy the black economy. At the same time, the levels of disclosure set by the Osian’s Art Fund make us easy targets,” he said.In an emailed response to Mint’s queries, a Saffronart spokesperson said, “Saffronart has been pivotal in introducing complete transparency in the market for Indian contemporary art by publishing transaction details and prices clearly on our website. We are a professional company and all our transactions are clearly documented and are in compliance with applicable laws.”According to Ranjit Hoskote, a Mumbai-based art critic, there is no such thing as an authentic price for a work of art. “There is only a current price widely agreed upon by all market actors and proportional to the available capital and purchasing power within a specific context—and you can take it or leave it. That is the nature of any market,” Hoskote said.
“The question of a conflict of interest can hardly arise, because the interests of artists, auction houses and galleries are closely aligned. And do remember that no collector or investor has ever been coerced into buying a work of art—you always have the option of not buying in a private sale, of not bidding in an auction. If people have been prepared to buy works of art at prices that are obviously steeper than they should have been, this is a comment on their own desire to profit from a boom-time scenario…to participate in the creation of a new market,” he said in an email.In a nascent art market such as India, according to him, systems of mutual regulation and transparent valuation are yet to be codified but are bound to come within the next decade. Art galleries and experts believe the market is slowing due to the downturn. “The galleries are bemoaning the fewer footfalls, and young investors who used to buy with their bonuses are no longer buying as easily,” said Saryu Doshi, former director of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai.Maitreyee Handique contributed to this story.

The post Premier art houses under I-T scanner first appeared on Indian Art News.

PATNA: Leading contemporary artist Subodh Gupta is, what they say, paying back to his home state Bihar which saw the worst-ever floods last monsoon. He collaborated with his celebrity friends in the art world, and collected Rs 4.17 crore through online auction of their paintings for rehabilitation of the state’s flood victims.

Gupta is among few Indian artists who have made meteoric rise during the past few years. One of his paintings sold at a whopping Rs 4.28 crore at a recent art auction at Gurgaon, where bidders from 32 countries competed with one another for 100-odd works of art by Indian contemporaries.

“We persuaded 30 leading Indian contemporary artists to donate their works for the flood-relief auction,” Gupta and his wife, Bharti, informed TOI in an e-mail. Saffronart, Peter Nagi of Nature Morte Gallery and Trident Hotel at Gurgaon collaborated in the project. The auction was hosted by Saffronart on its online platform on November 11 and 12.

Gupta and his friends have selected two Bihar-based NGOs __ Gunj and Samajik Saikshanik Vikas Kendra (SSVK) — to spend the money in the flood-hit areas. “We have already disbursed Rs 50 lakh to Gunj and Rs 34 lakh to SSVK,” Gupta said.

In response to a query, Gupta, a native of Khagaul near Patna, said he often thought about the plight of flood-hit people when mercury dips. “That’s how the idea of a charity auction struck me,” he said.

More than three million people were rendered homeless by the floods as the mighty Kosi river changed its course following a breach in its embankment at Kusaha in Nepal on August 18, 2008.

The post Bihar painter raises Rs 4.17cr for flood relief first appeared on Indian Art News.

MUMBAI: The victims of the flood in Bihar in August have found good Samaritans in 31 artists from across the country. From Atul and Anju Dodiya and Jitish Kallat to T V Santhosh and Mithu Sen, artists have donated one work each to an auction organised by Saffron Art, artist couple Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher, Delhi gallery Nature Morte and the Trident in Gurgaon. Hundred per cent of the proceeds will go to NGOs that work with victims of the flood, said Saffron Art owner Dinesh Vazirani. The works will be auctioned on November 11 and 12 and those interested can visit www.saffronart.com.

The event has been put together in a lightning 20 days. Kher said that she and Gupta urgently called their friends as the condition of the flood victims is quite grim and getting worse. Stories about the global economic meltdown have eclipsed press coverage of flood relief, Vazirani pointed out. Now they have absolutely nothing, said Kher. Its the right time to do an auction. Riyas Komu, one of the contributors, added that Kher and Gupta are doing a worthy thing and that its high time the government tackles natural calamities better. It was an anticipated flood and there had been several warnings.

The even is especially significant for Gupta as he is a native of Bihar. Initially Gupta and Kher had the mad idea that they would go to Bihar themselves to see how they could help. Gupta joked that if he had carried out his plan, he wouldnt have been able to work for at least a year. Two NGOs Goonj and Samajik Shaikshanik Vikas Kendrawill disburse the funds generated by the auction. Vazirani said that a conservative estimate of the target he thinks the auction will achieve is Rs three crore. The upper estimate, he added, is Rs four crore.

The works on display are quite stunning. Bose Krishnamachari, for instance, has served up a psychadelic piece of art titled Stretched Bodies. Delhi-based duo Thukral and Tagra have offered Somnium Genero, a triptych that involves pop art colours, old-fashioned frames and a toaster. In Bharti Khers work, This Way and Never Another Way, tributaries of red, blue, black and white bindis form what looks like a mighty river. The artists have really given great works, Vazirani said. And theyre well-priced. Are the organisers worried that collectors might shy away from spending on art at a time when the global economy is in a deep trough? Gupta explains that he doesnt expect buyers to be chary as theyre not donating money. Even though theyre spending considerable amounts, theyre getting something highly valuable in return, he said. The artists, on the other hand, have donated their paintings without asking for a penny. This is a coming together of artists from India, said Vaziranis wife Minal. Theres a sense of a community. Were able to contribute to the survival of people.

The post United colours for Bihar first appeared on Indian Art News.

SAFFRONART CLOSED its exciting Autumn Online Auction of Contemporary Indian Art, registering a total sale value of approximately Rs 29 crores (US $7.2 million), about 72 per cent in excess of the low estimate. Hosted on Saffronart’s new technology platform which serves up an innovative and secure user interface, this sale featured several genres of Contemporary Indian Art including painting, sculpture, photography and installation.
At this sale, world auction records were set for 18 Indian artists, including TV Santhosh, Anju Dodiya, Sudhir Patwardhan, GR Iranna, Mithu Sen, Anita Dube, Sudarshan Shetty, Anil Revri, Tushar Joag, Manisha Parekh, Debanjan Roy, Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi, Kishor Shinde, Chitra Ganesh, Ravikumar Kashi, Ram Bali Chauhan, Mayyur Kailash Gupta and Nicola Durvasula.
Within the first hours of the auction, several lots crossed their higher estimates, including TV Santhosh’s diptych, featured on the cover of the catalogue, and works by Subodh Gupta, Riyas Komu, Anandajit Ray, GR Iranna, Tushar Joag, Dhananjay Singh and George Martin, setting the pace for the exciting bidding activity that continued till the last seconds of the sale.
At this auction, over 575 registered bidders from all over the world competed against each other for the works of some of India’s most talented artists. The top five lots of this Saffronart auction were Subodh Gupta’s Idol Thief I, selling for Rs 4.28 crores (US $1.07 million); Subodh Gupta’s Saat Samundra Par (Across the Seven Seas), selling for Rs 3.4 crores (US $850,000); TV Santhosh’s When your Target Cries for Mercy, selling for Rs. 2.8 crores (US $701,500); Anju Dodiya’s The Site, selling for Rs 1.06 crores (US $267,375); and Sudhir Patwardhan’s The Clearing, selling for Rs 93,15,000 (US $232,875).
Online art auctions, pioneered by Saffronart, have transformed the landscape of Modern and Contemporary Indian Art, making it accessible to participants across geographies and opening it to a wide spectrum of international art lovers. Other Articles by Rupali Ghadge Saffronart’s September annual on-line auction Established by Dinesh and Minal Vazirani, Saffronart has set global benchmarks for online art auctions. The company’s innovative business model has prompted the Harvard Business School to write and teach a case study on Saffronart.
Saffronart has been instrumental in fundamentally changing the market for Modern and Contemporary Indian Art. With its professionalism and transparency, it has contributed to the burgeoning international and domestic interest in Indian art, and in the process established itself as the leader in Modern and Contemporary Indian Art auctions globally.

The post Saffronart’s Autumn Online Auction breaks new ground first appeared on Indian Art News.

Rashid Rana occupies a unique position among Pakistan’s contemporary artists and has been a hit internationally
Rashid Rana is a star, whether it’s in Lahore, Mumbai or Hong Kong. The Pakistani artist wowed the crowds who flocked to his Mumbai show in November. And he received an equally rapturous response last month at HK 08, the inaugural Hong Kong Art Fair.
The overwhelming response to Rana’s eye-catching work didn’t come as the slightest surprise to two Mumbai art galleries. Chatterjee & Lal and Chemould Prescott Road jointly organised the show of Rana’s digital photo-montages at HK 08 and they were absolutely certain that it would receive critical acclaim. “It was all sold out,” says Mortimer Chatterjee, partner, Chatterjee & Lal.

Hamra Abbas has transposed the romantic figures of Indian miniatures into a sculpture, Lessons on Love I; Rashid Rana layers his work with multiple images and messages as in the digital photo-montage, Red Carpet II (top), which is actually composed of scenes from a slaughterhouse
Rana occupies a unique position among contemporary Pakistani artists and he has made a huge name for himself internationally. But he isn’t the only artist from across the border who’s attracting the attention of connoisseurs in India.
In the last two months, three shows by Pakistani artists like Bani Abidi, Ali Kazim and Muhammad Zeeshan have been held across Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. And many more are planned in the coming 12 months.
Or take a look at art collector Anupam Poddar, who has built a sizeable collection of contemporary Pakistani art. His Devi Art Foundation is doing the groundwork for a show in March 2009, which will be curated by Rana.
“Interest in Pakistani art is increasing in India,” says Peter Nagy of Delhi’s Nature Morte, who held the first solo show of Rana’s work in India and then helped take his work overseas.
So, is Pakistani art the next Big Thing in India? Many art experts believe the interest in Pakistani art is only natural. Says Chatterjee: “There are so many lines of inter-connection between the concerns of Pakistani artists and the lives of normal Indians that often the subject matter is entirely relevant to an Indian audience.”
There’s also, as Rana says, “a kind of mutual obsession on both sides of the border, fostered by shared histories, the trauma of Partition and the years of hostility and inaccessibility.”
Certainly Pakistani art, like Indian art, is suddenly becoming more visible at international art fairs and auctions. For instance, works by Talha Rathore and Nusra Ali Qureishi sold at auctions held by Christie’s and Saffronart recently.
For Bangalore-based GALLERYSKE’s founder, Sunitha Kumar Emmart who had been following Pakistani video artist Bani Abidi’s work, then, art fairs provided an opportunity to view the work of the Pakistani artist at first-hand. That led to a show by Abidi recently.
“Regardless of nationality or gender, we have been interested in Bani’s work primarily for the strength of her practice and the clarity of her artistic vocabulary,” says Emmart.
The inter-connections between the two countries is attracting Indians to Pakistani art, says Mortimer Chatterjee, partner, Chatterjee & Lal
Abidi’s themes went down well with Bangalore art lovers. In the video piece, Reserved, she shows a city coming to a halt for a political bigwig. It has images of schoolchildren waiting to wave crumpled paper flags at a motorcade that never arrives — it was a theme, obviously, that Indian viewers could relate to.
“I’m interested in talking about a more complex identity formation along linguistic and cultural lines, rather than religious ones,” says Abidi, who was surprised by the response to her show. “This is the first time I’ve had a solo show in India. So, it was a first for me that this kind of attention was given to my work here and I value that,” she adds.
Meanwhile, Ali Kazim’s mastery over watercolours drew a huge response at Delhi’s Gallery Espace. The show was held in collaboration with Green Cardamom, a UK-based institution that promotes South Asian artists.
And in Mumbai, art lovers got to see Muhammad Zeeshan’s contemporary miniatures in his show, What Lies Beneath, organised by Delhi’s Anant Art Gallery.
“There’s a certain understanding regarding art that I find in Indians. And it feels good to be a foreigner only 40 minutes across the border and be identified with my imagery as an international artist,” says Zeeshan, who has shown in Delhi, Agra and Calcutta since 2005.
(From top) Miniature artist Muhammad Zeeshan wants his images to tease the imagination as in Let’s Make A Great Pattern I and Untitled II; Pakistani artists are addressing issues like gender, politics and ethnicity in a language that’s contemporary and international, says art critic Quddus Mirza
India’s interest in Pakistani art has been building gradually. The canvas was prepared by curators like Pooja Sood in India and Salima Hashmi in Pakistan, and institutions like Khoj International Artists’ Association and VASL Artists Residency in Delhi and Karachi, respectively. Khoj and VASL have held artists’ residencies since the late 1980s. Early shows like “Mappings: Shared Histories” curated by Sood too helped.
But till 2004, when Nature Morte held Rana’s first show here, public interest was low. Recalls Nagy: “There was good response from the art community but not from collectors.”
That has changed now. One catalyst was the large show, Beyond Borders: Art from Pakistan, at Mumbai’s National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in 2005. It was co-curated by Pakistani artist and art critic Quddus Mirza and NGMA’s then director Saryu Doshi.
“I didn’t realise it would create such a stir. It was the first time that we were recognised as contemporary to India in art,” says Mirza.
Since then, the momentum has picked up, spurred by galleries and artists. Says Muhammad Umer Butt, artist and creative director, Grey Noise, a new virtual art gallery based in Pakistan: “Rashid [Rana] has played an instrumental role in introducing us Pakistanis to India.”
Mirza believes that apart from the “newness” factor, the similarities and differences between the two nations have attracted Indians. Shows like Beyond Borders also revealed that Pakistani artists aren’t “making Islamic calligraphy or veiled women”.
“We’re painting nudes, addressing issues of gender, politics and ethnicity in a language that is contemporary and international. So perhaps that shattering of pre-conceived ideas was one source for the Indian attraction,” he says.
But it isn’t just cultural affinity that’s attracting Indian art lovers to the work from across the border. The fact is that cutting-edge work is coming out of Pakistan. Says Saffronart co-director Dinesh Vazirani: “Wherever collectors are looking at art from outside, they’re looking for innovation.”
Hammad Nasar, co-founder, Green Cardamom, believes this is partly because, “for most of its 60-year existence, Pakistan has remained a cauldron of political and social upheaval.” He adds: “This has proved to be a fertile ground for artists to mine.”
Certainly, it has thrown up a diverse palette. The Pakistani art scene can be broadly divided into two: there are artists working in new media, and there are those that have given a contemporary twist to the miniature tradition.
Indians, says gallerists, are interested in both types of works. The big draw, of course, is Rana with his multi-layered images and messages. Take his Red Carpet photo-montage series — Red Carpet-1 incidentally sold for a record $623,400 at Sotheby’s recent Spring Sale of Contemporary Art. At first glance, the work appears to be a large Persian carpet. But when you look closer, there’s a series of tiny photographs of scenes from a slaughterhouse.
(From top) Bani Abidi’s video piece, Reserved, has images of school children waiting to wave at a political bigwig’s motorcade that never arrives; Hammad Nasar, co-founder, Green Cardamom, says Pakistani artists are keen to show in India
The work reflects, in a sense, Rana’s formal and conceptual concerns. He says in his artist’s statement, “In today’s environment of uncertainty, we cannot have the privilege of a single world-view. Every image or idea already contains its opposite within itself.”
Other contemporary Pakistani artists are also being noticed around the world. There are prominent names like Naiza Khan, sculptor-photographer Huma Mulji, Hamra Abbas, Faiza Butt, Mohammad Ali Talpur, and sculptor Khalil Chishtee, whose recent work includes sculptures with garbage bags. Mulji’s Arabian Delight, for instance, was reportedly picked up by British collector Charles Saatchi for $8,000 at the recent Dubai Art Fair.
At a different level, there are the neo-miniaturists — Indian collectors who are familiar with miniatures are quite enthusiastic about this type of work. Miniature art is a strong discipline at Lahore’s National College of Art (NCA), and it has turned out stars like Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq and Shahzia Sikander, who made a name for herself internationally in the ’90s.
Now there are newer miniaturists like Imran Qureshi, Aisha Khalid, Nusra Latif Qureshi, Hasnat Mehmood, Talha Rathore and Zeeshan. “These artists have taken the South Asian tradition of miniature to new heights, and then moved beyond the page to invent a new visual language, rooted in tradition but of the here and now,” says Nasar.
Take Zeeshan, who began painting porn cinema posters before studying miniature work at NCA, and who combines the beauty of miniature with edgier themes of gender, dominance and violence.
Zeeshan says he enjoys “teasing” the viewer. “And I think my images tease a lot. The oddity of the composition leads the viewer to dialogue and maybe, just for a second, ask, ‘What is this’,” he says.
Pakistan’s rich artistic output owes largely to its strong art educational system, especially since, unlike India, most practicing artists there also teach. “This has honed the critical edge of art here,” adds Rana.
(From top) Ali Kazim’s mastery over watercolours is evident in his creation Red Taveez, 2005; Works like Colourful Conversations by Mehreen Murtaza are receiving online queries from India; Grey Noise’s Muhammad Umer Butt rues the lack of gallery infrastructure in Pakistan. He’s seen here with partner Rehan B Shah and with artist Ayaz Jokhio’s Self-Portraits in the background
Not surprisingly, Indian galleries like Chatterjee & Lal want to tap this further. Says Chatterjee: “It’s a perfect opportunity for Indian galleries to help young Pakistani artists who may not have an outlet.”
For Pakistani artists too, India is an attractive destination, especially since the gallery infrastructure in Pakistan is still very underdeveloped. Grey Noise’s Butt says, apart from a few spaces like Rohtas 2 in Lahore: “We have showrooms but not galleries unfortunately.”
Abidi too says, “The art market (in Pakistan) is almost non-existent and the small one that does exist is very conservative.”
That’s why Butt felt compelled to found Grey Noise. “We’re the first virtual gallery to represent cutting-edge artists based in Pakistan,” he says.
Already, Butt is “overwhelmed” by the response from India on his site. “I get a decent amount of taps from around the world and India takes the lead,” he says. Artists like Ayaz Jokhio, Mehreen Murtaza, Fahd Burki and Amna Hashmi are getting the most queries.
Even Indians living abroad are showing an interest in Pakistani art, according to Prajit Dutta, partner, Aicon Gallery, which is present in New York, Palo Alto and London. Last year, Aicon held two shows with Pakistani artists in London and New York.
This year, it has done solos with Zeeshan and Talha Rathore in New York. Coming up in July is a show with installation and video artists Adeela Suleman, Jokhio and Fareeda Batool. And there’s a possible Naiza Khan show in New York next year. Dutta is also planning to show these artists in India. “We’ve got a great response from Western and Indian collectors,” he says.
The boom in the international art market and growing interest in South Asia have made Pakistani art an attractive proposition, feels Rana, especially since art from South Asia is expected to emulate the global success of Chinese art. “Pakistani art benefits from a kind of trickle-down effect from this tremendous energy in the Indian art market,” he says.
The Pakistanis are obviously eager to make their mark in the booming Indian art mart. Green Cardamom, for instance, is planning two exhibitions in India next year, one by the acclaimed Hamra Abbas, who works in everything from video to animation, miniature painting and sculpture. In her Lessons on Love series, she transposed the romantic figures of Indian miniatures into sculpture.
Says Green Cardamom’s Nasar: “India is a place where almost all our artists are keen to show. So we’ll figure out ways to do this to their best advantage.”
(From top) Restore the Boundaries , a work by leading Pakistani artist Naiza Khan; Awakening, a contemporary miniature by Talha Rathore
Nature Morte too will host a solo with Abbas in 2009 in Delhi and Calcutta. Besides, Abbas and Rana are part of a large canvas project Nagy’s working on with auction house Phillips de Pury in London in November, which will then travel to New York in January.
Meanwhile, GALLERYSKE’s Emmart too plans to mount curated shows by Indian and Pakistani artists. Even Vazirani intends to increase the Pakistan section of Saffronart’s auctions. And he will hold a two-city show with Pakistani artists in Mumbai and New York in 2009.
To be sure, prices are one reason why Pakistani art is suddenly becoming popular here. As Indian art prices soar, there are better bargains to be had across the border. One art critic says that emerging artists from Pakistan offer “much better value than most Indian art now”. Vazirani too says: “There are opportunities to discover new artists.”
According to one gallerist, high-quality miniatures from Pakistan are typically priced between $10,000 and $20,000 though the masters are more expensive. Autumn II, a miniature by Zahoor-Ul-Akhlaq, for instance, sold at Christie’s’ auction of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art this month for over $39,000.
The artists, though, are sceptical of the commercialisation in the Indian art market. “What we have now is everyone trying to cash in, exploit the artist, and in some cases, the artist exploiting the buyer,” says Abidi.
Yet the artistic exchange seems set to continue — barring the arbitrariness of officialdom. And as Chatterjee says: “This is just the beginning.”

The post Art across borders first appeared on Indian Art News.

In 2007, when a Mumbai-based art gallery released a set of 18 limited edition serigraphs of painter Jehangir Sabavala, the sceptics among collectors sniggered about what they perceived as manipulation of prices.

In the time the exhibition-cum-sale moved from Mumbai to Delhi, the prices of the smaller of the serigraph prints (16’x24.4′) had escalated from Rs 45,000 to Rs 90,000 each, and the larger prints (24.4’x33.6′) had jumped from Rs 75,000 to Rs 1,50,000 each. If you bought the entire set, you might therefore have paid Rs 8 lakh in Mumbai, and a little later, Rs 13.5 lakh in Delhi.

This year, one such set was auctioned by Bonham’s for Rs 26 lakh. And now, another set is on offer at the June 15 auction of Bid & Hammer in Bangalore, where the estimate value of Rs 22-24 lakh might well be comfortably breached. It is this careful sourcing of art works that marks the auction company’s bid for respectability.

Badly scorched at its debut auction a few months back, Bid & Hammer this time has paid considerably more attention to its lots, choosing between well-established artists as well as quality works by those less well known. More importantly, it has based estimates on a realistic, perhaps even the low-end of the scale.

A Thota Vaikuntam oil on canvas, arguably only 8’x7′, is estimated at a laughable Rs 35,000 to Rs 50,000.

The coming week has another auction on the anvil — that of online auction house Saffronart — on June 18-19. And the most excitement among collectors is being generated for works by MF Husain, who has been cleared of obscenity charges against him in India.

Though the artist has not yet risked his return to the country, the Saffronart auction should see a major swing in his works, paralleling his own life.

In all, 140 lots of modern and contemporary works are on offer, and though many of the by-now predictable names are out in force (F N Souza, S H Raza, Ram Kumar, Akbar Padamsee, J Swaminathan, Jogen Chowdhury, Laxma Goud and Krishen Khanna), interesting inclusions are Manjit Bawa (collectors are holding on to the artist’s works while he lies in coma, hoping for an escalation in their value), Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi, Chitra Ganesh, Gopikrishna, Farhad Hussain and Vivan Sundaram.

The Saffronart auction will be keenly watched to see which way prices go, especially since international interest in Indian art has continued to uphold values. Even though they might not be escalating as sharply as before, Indian artists, those living or deceased, have continued to set higher individual records at auctions of their works.

This was certainly so in London where, last month, Sotheby’s realised $8.4 million from a sale of modern and contemporary Indian art, setting as many as 11 individual record highs for artists Akbar Padamsee, F N Souza, Subodh Gupta (for a work on canvas), Bharti Kher, Rabindranath Tagore, Jitish Kallat and others. “Indian art,” said Zara Porter-Hill, head of Indian art at Sotheby’s, “continues to prosper – it’s a market on the move.”

June rang up in London when 19th century wash views on Coonoor and Darjeeling in India painted by explorer artist Edward Lear opened the month. At the time of writing, an exhibition of 32 works from the private collection of Tina and Anil Ambani has just been shown by Christie’s.

The auction house has also consigned 12 works from Tina Ambani’s Harmony Art Foundation for auction, as part of its sale of South Asian modern and contemporary art where the stars of the show are old favourites F N Souza and Tyeb Mehta.

For news of how the Christie’s auction went, watch this space. Else, there are always the serigraphs next week – henceforth let no one tell you only “original” works have resale value.

In all, 140 lots of modern and contemporary works are on offer, and though many of the by-now predictable names are out in force (F N Souza, S H Raza, Ram Kumar, Akbar Padamsee, J Swaminathan, Jogen Chowdhury, Laxma Goud and Krishen Khanna), interesting inclusions are Manjit Bawa (collectors are holding on to the artist’s works while he lies in coma, hoping for an escalation in their value), Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi, Chitra Ganesh, Gopikrishna, Farhad Hussain and Vivan Sundaram.

The Saffronart auction will be keenly watched to see which way prices go, especially since international interest in Indian art has continued to uphold values. Even though they might not be escalating as sharply as before, Indian artists, those living or deceased, have continued to set higher individual records at auctions of their works.

This was certainly so in London where, last month, Sotheby’s realised $8.4 million from a sale of modern and contemporary Indian art, setting as many as 11 individual record highs for artists Akbar Padamsee, F N Souza, Subodh Gupta (for a work on canvas), Bharti Kher, Rabindranath Tagore, Jitish Kallat and others. “Indian art,” said Zara Porter-Hill, head of Indian art at Sotheby’s, “continues to prosper — it’s a market on the move.”

June rang up in London when 19th century wash views on Coonoor and Darjeeling in India painted by explorer artist Edward Lear opened the month. At the time of writing, an exhibition of 32 works from the private collection of Tina and Anil Ambani has just been shown by Christie’s.

The auction house has also consigned 12 works from Tina Ambani’s Harmony Art Foundation for auction, as part of its sale of South Asian modern and contemporary art where the stars of the show are old favourites F N Souza and Tyeb Mehta.

For news of how the Christie’s auction went, watch this space. Else, there are always the serigraphs next week — henceforth let no one tell you only “original” works have resale value.

The post Two art auctions next week could heat up the market first appeared on Indian Art News.