The New Craze?

Elin Lake-Ewald, MRICS, reports on the market for art in South East Asia and explores its development in the United States.


All images courtesy of O’Toole-Ewald Art Associates

“Explosive,” was the first word uttered by Abraham Joel, noted collector and dealer of Indian Art, when commenting on the South East Asia contemporary global market. He noted: “At the Osian Auction in Mumbai (March 2009), the bidding was high level and fierce, and it is sustained by the overall market for Indian art.” Joel suggested exalted levels for native art are fueled by the equally exalted Indian growth rate — predicted to possibly reach 9 percent by end of 2009. He believes this is the result of a still stable economy sustained by tight banking regulations.

According to Indian journalist Somini Sengupta, in an article sent from New Delhi to the New York Times in May 2007: “Never before has (Indian art) fetched such extravagant prices and acclaim abroad. Never before have Indians at home been so prosperous as to support a proliferation of galleries, exhibitions, and even investment funds devoted to art.”

As of this year, the dominant masters of Indian art are Husain, Francis Newton Souza, S.H. Raza and Tyeb Mehta, the latter of whom’s work has sold for well over $1million at auction.

Also included in this category is Mohan Samant, who has a highly successful career that across the globe. The region’s up-and-coming stars include Nilesh Shilkar Saurname, Prashant Salui, Anupam Sud, Paramjit Singh, Mrinalini Mukherjee and Jayashree Chakravarty who are well sought after by collectors across the globe including in the United States.

Paradoxically, in a country with a long tradition of graphic sexual iconography, two of its most prominent contemporary artists, including Husain and Prashant Salui, considered the most promising emerging Indian artists, have run into trouble for their work’s erotic content — to the extent that Husain, threatened by death, chose exile in Dubai. Also, at the time of writing this article it was learned that Indian artist Subodh Kerkar was receiving threats from Hindu nationalists for depicting the elephant headed god Ganesha in various poses, including walking naked carrying a garden rake.

Auction houses have been promoting the South Asian market since the late 20th and early 21st century. Bonhams’ Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern and South Asian Art department has long been offering Modern and Contemporary Indian and Pakistani paintings in London, displaying work by Indian artists Jamini Roy and Souza, along with work by Pakistani artists such as Chughtai, Sadequain and Jamil Saqsh.

Maqbool Fida Husain’s Couple

Christie’s geographical range extends from Afghanistan to Indonesia and from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka. At the South East Asian auction by Sotheby’s Hong Kong in April 2009, there was a 77 percent sales rate, with the highest priced items selling more readily than those in the lower categories. Indonesian Nyoman Masriadi was one star of the evening when his painting, Negotiation sold for $217,000. However, it was far less than the artist’s comparable painting had sold for the year before at the height of the market. Other artists that drew interest in this sale were Ahmad Zakii Anwar, Geraldine Javier, Handiwirman Saputra, and Nyoman Masriadi.

Modern art in another South East Asian country, Tibet, is somewhat apart from art in other nearby nations, perhaps not yet as developed and certainly not as well known. There appears to be no one dominant style among the Tibetan artists. Tserang Dhandrup, from North East Tibet, paints highly detailed views of ancient cultural centers; Gade, one of the better-known artists, mixes ancient icons with contemporary symbols.

Tsering Nyandak paints wildly joyous canvases full of color and ironic comments on Tibetan life and photographer Tenzing Paljor captures the landscapes of remote areas of his country where the Tibetan Buddhist way of life is preserved. Gonkar Gyatso offers more commercial limited editions of his work in Dubai, which has turned into a major outlet for South East Asia artists.

This present market for Indian and South Eastern art appears to be surviving rather better than its Western brethren. Christie’s latest London sale, in June, of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, sold 91 percent by value and 79 percent in terms of lots, garnering £2,430,375 ($3,973,450). The top lot was Husain’s oil on canvas from the Ragamala Series that went for £397,250 ($649,504) to a U.S. collector. Other top lots were by Rashid Rana, Ram Kumar, Jamini Roy, F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and Akbar Padamsee.

Meenakshi Thirudkode, an Indian art critic and independent curator living in New York, has begun a monthly column on contemporary South Asian art.

According to Thirudkode, a “mad frenzy” for collecting Indian art began in 2001 with American and European collectors joining in, and now, in a recessionary period, may be profiting from the disappearance of speculators in astronomically priced art of the last few years. Compared to the ‘sky’s the limit’ prices for contemporary art seen in the recent past, the cost of buying a first-rate piece of ethnographic art is relatively small. This echoes Joel’s sentiment when he stated that emerging Indian artists’ work can be purchased for under $1,000 — perhaps a third of the price emerging Western artists can charge for comparable work.

Although the majority of major Indian artworks are purchased by Indians in the United States and in their native country, more Americans are becoming attracted to the advantage seen in collecting relatively inexpensive art during a growth period. And this is not unlike what happened more than a decade ago when contemporary Chinese art began its spectacular ascendance.

The growing number of East Indians living and working in the United States translates into the emergence of galleries, particularly in New York and Washington, specializing in Indian art, as well as the collecting of this art through auctions and retail. New York’s O’Toole-Ewald Art Associates has been asked to appraise a number of such collections, indicating that the market for contemporary Indian art has established itself firmly on American soil.

Ivan Santigo’s From Where I Am

Christie’s New York in 2008 set four world records for the highest prices ever achieved for Indian and South East Asian art. A Sarnath sandstone figure of Buddha achieved $4.47m, a 13th century Tibetan thangka reached $1.5m, a rare painting by Nainsukh of Guler achieved $2.2m, and a Baphuon sandstone figure hit $2.1m. Ancient art these may be, but as older art disappears into museums and private collections and cannot be replenished, it is often the case that adventurous collectors will move into more modern areas of art. Within the next few years, we may very well see an evolution in the collecting of contemporary Indian and South East Asian art.

Since initial research on the status of the Asian, and particularly the Contemporary Indian Art Market, there have been some unexpected shifts, reversals and recoveries.

Following the startling boom in the prices of Indian Art, with reporters quoting an upswing between 150 – 485 percent, mirroring India’s economic growth, the entire art market fell precipitously, and with it so did India’s — as much as 75 percent. Then, almost as suddenly, it began to rise again. One helpful reason might be that while previously Indian Art was collected only by Indians, now it has a worldwide collectors base.

Two examples:
“Chalo! India,” the largest exhibition of contemporary Indian art, attracted thousands to Vienna last fall, inaugurated by Austrian President Heinz Fischer. Artists such as Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher were featured in the two-month long event. And a month before that show, there was an Indian Art Summit in New Delhi, with 55 galleries participating. In London, Barclay’s Wealth recently sponsored two contemporary Indian Art exhibitions, “The Mother Theresa Series” by M.F. Husain, and “The First Five Rays of Raza” by S.H. Raza. Also in London, and currently open, is the Saatchi Gallery’s latest exhibition, “The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today,” which debuted at the end of January 2010. Given Saatchi’s success in promoting the work of unknown or emerging artists, sales should be on the uptick for contemporary Indian artists fortunate to be in the show. •