a r t a n d c u l t u r e
Vikram Kumar
A defining stroke for Indian art
India Art Summit brings a fragmented community together.
I n a country where most
people have never visited
an art gallery, and the
few that have stepped into
an art exhibition have been
left stupefied by the solemni-
ty of the place, the Indian
Art Summit was a wake-up
call for paying more atten-
tion to a market now worth
Rs 1500 crore. The Indian art
market is growing at a rate of
30-35 percent annually, and
in the last decade it has
grown by a whopping 485
percent! With Indian paint-
ings fetching nearly $150
million in auctions alone, it
is little wonder that the
world took note when India’s
first ever art summit was an-
nounced by Hanmer MS&L.
Held from 22nd to 24th Au-
gust, 34 national and inter-
national art galleries featur-
ing works of over 200 artists
set up their stalls at New
Delhi’s Pragati Maidan.
F N Souza, SH Raza, Ak-
bar Padamsee, Bikash Bhat-
tacharjee, Sunil Das, Yusuf
Arakkal, Krishnamachari
Bose, Sohan Qadri, Arpana
Caur…works of the who’s
who in art were on display,
except for the very guy who
put Indian art on the world
map. Afraid of attracting
the wrath of the saffron bri-
gade, the organisers opted to
bypass the sticky situation by
excluding the paintings
of MF Hussain. While a lot
of people showed their dis-
approval, Safdar Hashmi
Memorial Trust (Sahmat)
went ahead and organised
a parallel Hussain Art Sum-
mit, and despite no objec-
tionable painting being put
on display, the Shri Ram
Sena did show up and van-
dalised paintings and
wrecked property.
At the India Art Summit
though, all the three days re-
mained quite sunny and
happy exhibitors showed off
their paintings, priced over
two lakhs, sold in the first
half of the first day of the ex-
hibition! Robin Dean of Rob
Dean Art, UK, explained,
“We thought the Summit
would be a good opportunity
to meet collectors, artists,”
and Sonali Vadera of Rob
Dean Art mentioned that
they found plenty of people
interested in buying the
the sunday indian 70 7 september 2008
india art summit
paintings. “Being the first
summit of its kind, I came
without any expectations. It’s
been absolutely wonderful,
so many artists and galleries
said Mr. Sunil Gautam,
Managing Director, India
Art Summit.
The aisles at the India Art
Summit brimmed with lov-
and even people from over- ers of art, and as gallery
seas. Above all, it feels good owners beamed at the stu-
as you feel there is an art fra- pendous turnout of art lov-
ternity, otherwise everyone ers, artists and buyers, Phe-
has being working in isola- roza Godrej of Cymroza Art
tion,” remarked Aarti Singh Gallery reflected the enthusi-
of Polka, the art gallery. asm of art lovers, “The or-
The Art Forum on the ganisers were asking if there
second day was attended by was anything that they could
200 delegates and speakers do. I just wish that they’d
like Anjolie Ela Menon, Prof. double the aisle space as
Rajeev Lochan – Director, they’re many visitors! I think
National Gallery of Modern the Summit’s a success and I
Art, Dr. Robert Storr – hope it returns next year.”
Dean, Yale University School
of Art, Dr. Hugo Weihe – In- Anu Gulmohar
ternational Director-Asian
Art, Christie’s, Mr. Philip
Hoffman – Chief Executive,
The Fine Art Fund
Group. “The Art
Forum attempts
to fill a void in
the Indian art
space – a void
of collective
discussion by
different stake-
holders of the
art fraternity,” Collidonthus by Jitish Kallat