ART WEEK, WEAK?

This month, India goes artsy with the annual India Art Fair opening in Delhi and that lukewarm supporting event, The Mumbai Art Gallery happening in Mumbai. So far, the fair has not lived up to its promise to put India on the art global map.  In fact, in the past two years two great art institutions  —  the Lekha     Poddar powered Devi Foundation and the NGMA — have not put forward any significant programme during the event and neither have they done so this year. On the other hand, with Art Basel having bought a majority stake in India Art Fair and a new director in place, many cutting edge galleries like Chatterjee & Lal and Gallery 88 who had dropped out of the fair disillusioned with its commercialisation, have bought stall space this year willing to give it another shot. The action if any this year, will be at the satellite events like the Vivan Sundaram retrospective at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Tip: Do not miss it if you happen to be in Delhi!   

THE FREEZE

Indian art gallerists are currently a despairing lot; so far only the tried-and- tested veterans have survived the steady bloodbath. As a veteran gallerist, who has burnt her fingers running an art gallery, explained, “There are exactly five buyers of serious art in India (yes, you heard it right)… the kind who invest in museum worthy works.” Amongst them you can count Czaee Shah, Kiran Nadar, Sunita Choraria and Radhika Chopra. Even art aficionados Shalini Passi and Poonam Bhagat Shroff have silently fallen off the art buyers’ list. In the gallerist’s words, the rest of the crowd who claim to be art connoisseurs indulge in a few purchases to invest or to fill their mansion walls and neither make for a thriving art culture in India.  

ACT OF FAITH

The encouraging art initiative from India that has created a buzz amongst aficionados is the Reliance Foundation under the leadership of Nita Ambani, coming forward to sponsor Indian art exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York. Mrs Ambani is a member on The Met’s International Council and was even honoured by the Met Museum last year for her philanthropic work. So far the Reliance Foundation have supported Nasreen Mohamedi’s retrospective and Raghubir Singh’s photographic exhibition at the Met Breuer, with many more such programmes on the anvil. This is huge news for the Indian art world struggling to get a foot into the international art space. The move also deftly puts the Ambani name alongside big ticket brand names like Rockefeller and Getty that have traditionally supported the arts and the quiet buzz is that the young scion Isha         Ambani, having studied in an American university and comprehensive of the vital soft power of the arts, has been the brains behind this strategic move.    

ART OF THE BROKEN DEAL

A murmur in art circles is about this lady who has been working assiduously to project herself as the hippest art collector in town. A lot of home parties with one big brand artist thrown in to add authenticity to the ambition… and lend gravitas to the parties that are chock- a-block with beautiful dressed groupies. But tap the leading art gallerists in town and they quietly admit they will not touch her with a barge pole. The lady in question picked up a work of one of the biggest and most expensive names in the art world, promised to pay up soon and then sat on the bill while photographs of the work on her wall made their way in all the right magazines. When calls for the payment became too frequent and uncomfortable, the artwork was quietly returned. Much to the gallerist’s horror. The art world is too small. Word has got around.  

Society insider Shalini Sharma has two decades experience observing and reporting on the commerce and confessions of people who are generously described as celebrities.