A passage from India

Suddenly, there’s been a flurry of international arterati descending on our shores. Rarely a destination spot, India has been more of a layover-on the way to or from a more exciting elsewhere, for those looking for the NBT (Next Best Thing) in contemporary art. 

Until quite recently. Take Delhi. Last week at an elegant dinner hosted by
Peter Nagy of Nature Morte gallery, there was a clutch of youngish women from London and New York in India to loiter with intent through the contemporary art scene.
One of them is a consultant for the Charles Saatchi gallery in London; Saatchi, now enthusiastically adding Indian art to his collection, will show it in an exhibition with the saucy title of The Empire Strikes Back.

Another works for the Phillips de Pury & Company, an auction house in New York. A third is scouting for London gallerists.

The Americans have also arrived. A group of about 20 from the Guggenheim Museum in New York is currently in Delhi, creating a bit of a flutter in the art world of the capital.
Apparently, the Guggenheim has plans for an exhibition of contemporary Indian art in 2009. This winter also saw a few visitors from MOMA (the Museum of Modern Art in New York). 

Are Indian artists the new flavour of the times? Although younger Indian artists are doing well in auctions, it may be too soon to bring out the bubbly. We lag far behind the Chinese. However, we do seem to be getting there: Indian contemporary art now attracts buyers who are not NRIs or rich Indians. 

The United Kingdom has three major exhibitions — including Saatchi’s — showcasing contemporary Indian art in 2008. A show titled Passage to India opens next week in the new gallery (two huge prefab sheds on an industrial estate near Wolverhampton) of Manchester-based millionaire and art collector Frank Cohen. And, in September this year London’s Serpentine Gallery will show contemporary Indian art.

Across the Atlantic almost all the galleries dealing in Indian contemporary art are owned by Indians or NRIs. However, the prestigious Marlborough Gallery in New York has taken on board its first Indian artist — Viswanadhan.

An exhibition of his paintings (he divides his time between Paris and Cholamandal) opened this Wednesday. This indeed is a major passage to America: the painter has been inducted into the stable of the gallery’s artists that includes Mark Rothko and Botero. 

Perhaps, the European and American gallerists are targeting Indians, or those of Indian origin. Undoubtedly, they scrutinise the lists of the world’s richest men (the latest Forbes issue has four Indians amongst its top ten billionaires.

However, it is believed that the circle of buyers for Indian art will gradually enlarge to include other communities.

Certainly, the younger lot of artists is increasingly catching the fancy of international art connoisseurs. Subodh Gupta, christened the Damien Hirst of India, leads the pack: he is the true crossover artist.

The much-celebrated Anish Kapoor is probably the most well-known artist of Indian origin, but then he is considered British.

The names that keep cropping up in shows and auctions overseas are, amongst others, Subodh Gupta, Atul and Anju Dodiya, Thukral and Tagra, TV Santhosh, Justin Pommany, Jaganath Panda, Jitesh Kallat, Bharati Kher, Gia Scaria and Sudarshan Shetty.

Interestingly, most of the successful Young Turks of Indian art have a sensibility that is rooted in desi soil (often small town) and yet tuned into what is happening globally — glocal if you like.

Perhaps, it is the fairly new-found confidence to grab images from everywhere. From kitsch, popular imagery, the ordinary objects of daily life and Indian mythology, to borrowings from the high table of western art — everything is grist to the artist’s mill. Just come to think of it as Indian fiction.
Email: jain_madhu@hotmail.com