ART AFFAIRS - Anupa Mehta

Withstanding the Tremors

Anupa Mehta on ground zero post Osian's fall from grace 

The five odd years from around 2005 to 2010, have been tumultuous, to say the least. As works of art began to be valued mostly in terms of square foot cost, and prices shot through the newly vibrant roof, a host of new galleries joined the bandwagon. The buck reigned. Art practice took a back seat. After a while, short term investors and traders in search of profit maximisation found themselves in a complex space that they didn’t quite understand – in that, the ‘commodity’ they were trying to trade in, was one-of-a-kind, limited and of a fluctuating value, dependent on subjective appraisals. Still, it was a heady zone, more so given serious checks and balances were/are not yet in place, allowing people to take advantage of the loophole. Movers and shakers played the market – it was all out there, evident for anyone with a keen eye to notice. For example, price points of works by certain artists jumped four-fold in the primary market, on the basis of sudden, and unrealistically high benchmarks at auction, as in the case of T V Santhosh, to cite just one case in point.  

After a while though, the bull-run outran itself, leaving a fair amount of shattered china in its wake. In hindsight, market analysts aver that unsustainable prices and extreme overheating within a market that is, even today, estimated at just over 300 crores, created the perfect quicksand for things to sink into. Art works acquired at high prices find no takers today. Exit strategies and a high appreciation promised by fund managers remains a fantasy as far as the newbie trusting investor or punter goes.

As things stand post the liquidity crunch of 2008-2009, as we enter the last financial quarter of the year, just weeks after Forbes’ magazine’s chilling recapitulation of the alleged irregularities by one of India’s biggest market players, there is the sobering realisation that the slate needs to be wiped clean, that too, very quickly. And the onus for the clean-up rests squarely on the rest of the Indian art world for that is the only way that we will be able to bolster credibility vis-à-vis art pricing and ethical business practices.  Arts initiatives with a purely commercial focus, such as art funds, auction houses, fairs etc, are perhaps the hardest hit, having to re-examine operations and work towards greater transparency in order to retain and re-build investor faith. 

The good thing is that change is already palpable in the air in the Indian art world. Key galleries and curators are being far more selective – the focus is on the cutting edge, on strikingly ‘new’ practice which challenges conventional modes of seeing. Interestingly, despite the serious fluctuations and the loss of face in some quarters, emerging collectors are favouring art acquisitions that reflect new media art practice. The inauguration of two additional large initiatives in the capital, namely, the foundation spearheaded by Kiran Nadar and Rajshree Pathy's Contemplate, are pointers towards the fact that all is likely to be well, at least as far as serious and established collectors go. Emerging artists are acutely aware of the need to create art of high aesthetic order.

The lack of due diligence is a reflection on the Indian art world at large. If we have to aspire to greater heights, the challenge is now, it's time to take serious stock and strive towards more transparent ways of functioning, so that we may eventually find ourselves back on track. An official art index, new museums, art education initiatives, CSR towards the arts and a non-bureaucratic approach towards arts policy may be a first step.

As for Mr. Tuli, in some ways the fall guy for bad business practices, perhaps we can accord him a tiny bow for his foresight in envisaging the growth of a market for Indian contemporary art at a time when even Mumbai had but five galleries to speak of. 

(Anupa Mehta is an independent arts consultant. She manages two residency spaces, Arts Reverie in Ahmedabad and THE LOFT in Mumbai. Her email ID is mehta.anupa@gmail.com )