International market gets lucrative for young Indian artists

New artist-on-the-block Chintan Upadhyay’s work was sold last night for $8400 at Sotheby’s, New York at an auction of Indian art. A shocked Upadhyay says, “I had sold that work for $1500 a year back and I certainly didn’t expect it to be auctioned off so soon for so much.”

Art dealer Ashish Balram Nagpal is just as excited. “I sold his paintings for 1000 dollars two years ago. Now they are going for 8400 dollars. It’s an unprecedented increase in two years. Forget the sensex, the world had better look out for Chintan Upadhyay.”

Upadhyay has enjoyed success overseas and now joins Jitish Kallat, Baiju Parthan and Nikhil Chaganlal as the younger breed of artists creating waves abroad. The work is among his ‘New breed/Hybrid’ series (3 ft by 4 ft).

“This was the first time my work was at Sotheby’s. I didn’t even know about it till last night when someone called me at 2.30 am and told me about the auction,” says the artist.

Shireen Gandhy, Gallery Chemould says, “Chintan’s larger works go for around nine lakhs. Young Indian artists are being successful abroad, so it’s not such a coup.” Nagpal adds, “However, no artist has seen the kind of rise in value like Chintan’s over two years.”