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Review
India Art Summit™ 2009: A Much Needed Rejuvenation
The India Art Summit 2009 held in August, 2009 in New Delhi, provided the Indian world with a much-needed shot in the arm. Rikimi Madhukaillya reports on the event.
The Second Edition of the India Art Summit™ -India’s modern and contemporary art fair, which had inaugural success in August 2008, concluded recently at Pragati Maidan (ITPO), New Delhi. The summit was jointly organised by Asia Art Archive, Asia Society, Lalit Kala Academy, Devi Art Foundation, and the British Council.
Recession had affected all the industries, as also the art market. Indian art market was greatly affected by the global recession that set in mid-2008. It has been said that the real artist in the market will remain there and attain heights in spite of the recession. The India Art Summit was no exception to this.
The Summit started with a comparatively uncomfortable and humid weather which concluded with the heaviest rain of the season in Delhi; still it gathered a massive response from all sections of the audience. An impressive number of around 40,000 aficionados of Art entered the venue (in contrast to the last years number 10,000) to witness India’s First International Art Fair; India Art Summit™. Fifty four galleries from different corners of the world had put up their displays, 17 of which were from outside India. Some of the most prominent international galleries from Europe, Asia and the United States were also part of this event. Art works worth Rs. 50 Crores were displayed at the Summit and a figure of Rs. 26 Crores was sold at the venue. Anish Kapoor’s work displayed by Lisson Gallery was estimated at Rs. 75 Lakhs each. Other big names of the market such as F.N.Souza, Gade, Anjolie Ela Menon, Satish Gujral, Krishen Khanna and others were also on display. Delhi Art Gallery was awarded as the Best Gallery. Gallerist Ashish Anand had come up with the interesting idea of one pager details on the displayed art works and artists.
As the organisers claimed, the fundamental objective of India Art Summit was to focus on education and emerging awareness about art. There were educational and curatorial components to the fair through a series of Art Projects developed specifically for India Art Summit. A bunch of volunteers from the school of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU had given curatorial walks to interested audiences in pre-scheduled hours of the day. The Summit exhibited an assorted range of modern and contemporary Art, including paintings, sculpture, and photography; also new media, prints and video art by known and emerging artists. The India Art Summit™ 2009 aimed not only to make the Summit globally known as the single most important destination for Indian and South Asian Art but also create a platform for galleries from across the world to showcase an array of art that finds appeal among the Indian collectors and investors. The fair represents the best of Indian art as well as provide a first ever opportunity in this region, for international art to be received by a large and discerning art audience.
Many artworks displayed at the summit had attracted a number of viewers because of their playfulness. Viewers were seen standing in front of Anish Kapoor’s wall-mounted concave plates lacquered with red and dark grey and playing with their reflections. Lirio Salvador’s Sandata ni Lila at the Gallery The Drawing Room had provoked viewers to play the strings which created rhythmic sound. The Purple Wall Project was curated by the eminent curator and art historian Gayatri Sinha. The theme of the project was mainly violence. Subodh Gupta’s ‘Three Monkeys’ was part of the project displayed at the foyer, which looked quite impressive because of Gupta’s signature handling and size. Gupta, through his work, has made a statement on Violence and aggression in public life and how the city is crumbling around a certain amount of pressure. GR Iranna’s ‘Still Saddled (Fallen Donkey),’ Vibha Galhotra’s ‘Construction-Deconstrucion-Reconstruction’ and Ved Gupta’s ‘Dog Democracy’ had adorned the Sculpture Park.
New Media works and videos had entered as an addition to the activities associated with the Summit through Video Lounge. A good number of videos by 99 Indian and International artists were screened in a continuous loop. The Video Lounge projection was curated by Priya Pall.
International Speakers’ Forum was one of the interesting points of the Summit. Many keen listeners, who could not afford or did not want pay the fee for the forum had the privilege of sitting in the VIP lounge and view the live projection. But from the second day onwards, the attendees were discouraged by the representatives of the organisers by keeping the sound quite low. The forum had many interesting speakers everyday such as Geeta Kapur and Shaheen Merali among others. The focus of the forum was Asia and the issues of migration, movement, economics, the rise of India and Chine due to the power relations and artistic relations with the West. Many students and art lovers were complaining about the high entry fee of the forum which could be easily ignored by experiencing a huge rush in front of the forum hall. Even after wanting to spend, many could not manage a sit in the hall.
Art Summit had successfully created waves in the comparatively dull Art market (down with recession of course). Further, a lot of good exhibitions were opened during the three days of the Art Summit across the city. It felt like the hibernation of the city because of heat had all of a sudden broken down with India Art Summit. Let us wish to see a stabilisation of the Art Market soon after over an year-long recession!.
