The last several quarters have seen the art world record astronomical auction prices for pieces by masters.
Galleries such as Saffronart, Pundoles and others have seen collectors pay unprecedented prices for works.
Ashvin Rajagopalan, director of the Piramal Foundation of Art, says that “Production of artworks was initially limited. But now artists are working on paintings in small volume”Auctions on the other are a whole other matter.” Many world records were broken between September to April, this year with just April 2021 having seen auction sales of Rs 260 crore,” he says, adding that the “sales are good because a lot of people have made money in business and also lots of people have pulled out from alternate investments and placed them in art which is more secure.”
India’s art market was valued at around Rs 200 crore in 2000, and has grown to around Rs 1,700 crore in 2020, and if it follows that trajectory by 2040 will reach about Rs 16,000 crore a year, so the CAGR is to be reckoned with,” Rajagopalan says. “Artists love seclusion and loneliness without any disturbance and interference,” says Paresh Maity, a senior and leading modern Indian artist. If they can work for long periods of time on their own that’s the best thing for them from a point of productivity.”
No phone calls, long meditative stretches of time, reduced travel, and reduced interruptions, reduced meetings are all optimum for any working artist, he says. “Yet don’t forget that the world has been in a crisis and if you look at the first and second world war these are the times when the best art in the history of man has been created. Case in point as example, Picasso’s Guernica.”
Struggles can be used to produce the best art and when alone. “I mostly work when alone which has been easier to do in a lockdown,” Maity says, adding that his process of work became much more intense.” He says the air was clearer, the sky was clearer, the sun shone brighter and the eternal quest for peace and quiet became easier to work and produce work in. Today Modern and contemporary artists are better than most in the global scene but that is starting to happen and these are potential reasons why prices are driving higher.
One reason for prices going up is because the number of collectors for certain senior artists who aren’t alive anymore is appreciating faster. “The unfortunate history is that artists when alive don’t see their work price as well as when they are not. Gaitonde’s funeral needed funds to be collected while his work is breaking global records for prices now, so that’s worth noting,” says Maity.
Exhibitions became easier to market to wider audiences because they were all Online and thus driving in large audiences regardless of geographies and borders. Leading auction houses that include Christies and Sotheby’s conducted well over a 100 + Online auctions each last year itself, in response to demand from collectors and investors alike. Javed Abdulla, a professional art consultant who has worked with international art houses says that the pandemic has not been a leveller and there are top buyers whose wealth has multiplied and so the sales have increased disproportionately.
He points to the recent auction of Eastern art conducted by Sotheby’s that has had strong results in recent weeks.“I have noticed that people have started looking more closely as well at how paintings and imagery inspire them and can shape and influence their surroundings and that in the end is what art does,” points out Maity. (The author is a senior journalist based in Mumbai)
By Pavan LallExpress News Service
Source https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2021/apr/25/covid-lockdown-a-blessing-in-disguise-for-art-market-2294356.html
