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10th Dec 2008
ART IN THE TIME OF
RECESSION
With
prices falling, is this a good time to buy art? Only if you are a
genuine art-lover, says
Ramya Sarma
With the recession creeping inexorably across the globe and into
India, one group of people is feeling
most vulnerable-art collectors. The contemporary art market, a
distinctly luxury sector, has been turbulent over the past few years
and now shows a downward trend. There have been published reports
about works by Indian artists not
selling at international auctions, or going for prices far below their
lower estimates.
According to Zara Porter-Hill, director and head of Indian and
Southeast Asian art at Sotheby's in London, "The markets which have
experienced the biggest appreciation have been those which are
experiencing price adjustments. The Indian market is evolving, growing
and adjusting - a process which is very normal."
The art market is not just about demand and supply, but far more
complex, explains Neville Tuli,
founder chairman of Osian's. "High quality
Indian art is being seen more and more as a credible asset,
with many advantages over others." On the matter of sale prices, he
says, "Auctions are planned six months earlier and expectations were
different then; thus estimates were higher and so some negativity can
result, but the fall in top quality art is much less than any other
significant asset (a fall of 15 to 20% for high quality art compared
to 60 to 75% per cent for equities and real estate)." Just over a year
ago, there was a drop in prices of Indian art, explained as a
'correction'. "When the correction occurred over one year ago, prices
had dipped by over 35 per cent, but volumes had significantly jumped
up. Currently the Indian economy is in
a better state than Europe and US and so is our art market."
Art buyer-collector Ashwini Kakkar also finds that, "Assets are
down about 50 to 60% in art. But the prices for art have not dropped
that low for sellers, only about 20%. In this, galleries act as a kind
of buffer and maximize their own gains; as a result, the customer is
not getting the kind of value for money that they should, given the
downturn. Even in distress sales, the prices have not fallen too much.
But there is big drama happening in the art world; volumes have
collapsed and everyone is adopting a wait and watch policy."
Some artists who have done phenomenally well locally and overseas
believe that the downturn could be healthy.
Jitish Kallat, for one, says that "I frankly do not think that
it is a bad thing to have a drop in activity - until recently work
with very little conceptual rigour was being valued the same as works
of an artist who would have been at the forefront of the field for
many years. Insignificant work was seen on the same level as good
work, because speculative money was propping it up - a hugely
dangerous trend. All that would stop." But there is a downside, too.
Kallat feels that while galleries that do serious, sustained work will
be "bang on top of the art world, with less money coming in, some
would be much less adventurous. By this process, some volume would be
lost, but flab will leave the art world and it will become fat free!"
Maithili Parekh, deputy director, Sothebys, also sees the
correction as being "healthy". According to her, "values had been
galloping unrealistically. Mediocre art is now falling by the wayside,
but strong works by top artists continue to fetch interest and price."
Critic-curator-writer Ranjit Hoskote
knows that "Corrections, when they set in, are not pleasant things.
Given the current financial scenario, it seems probable that the
prices of art will de-escalate in the next 15 to 18 months. If the
upward zoom was dramatic, then the downward ebb is likely to be
equally drastic. But the concerted actions of many interlocking
interests in the artist-dealer-gallery system will probably slow down
or cushion the full, brutal impact of the correction."
So, is it a good time to buy? For any art lover, always.
Porter-Hill says, "There are certainly wonderful opportunities to be
had at the moment." To gauge the future of the
Indian art market, Porter-Hill's eye
is firmly fixed on the sales in New York in March. According to
Hoskote, "This is a good time to buy art if you happen to be that rare
creature, a genuine lover of art -- this may be the time to identify
artists whose prices have never galloped and whose work continues to
be compelling; or genres that were below the radar and now look
promising, such as drawing or graphics."
And Parekh agrees, "The art market has gone from favouring the
seller to favouring the buyer. Given this, I believe it is an
excellent opportunity to buy, especially art of stellar quality, with
good provenance and condition." However, she is clear that "The
foremost premise for buying art should be passion, because a collector
must love and live with what he's bought." As Parekh says, "The next
year will be crucial to the Indian art world
- how we choose to weed out the debris (that is, mediocre art),
nurture good artists and art and sustain a passion in collecting will
determine health and sustainability."
The bubble has been pricked, Hoskote notes. "The obsessive race for
auction records and instant validation of art will surely yield to the
gradual and sensible accumulation of value. With the feeding frenzy
and the maniacal pursuit of prices over, artists will have less demand
to distract them from their art, and gallerists can redraft course and
focus on their core concerns. Likewise, collectors have the space to
assess what they really want from their collections. Speculators will
perhaps be encouraged to look elsewhere, which would be a relief."
Tuli sees the "role of the arts in India's socio-eco-political
framework gaining further momentum. The role of art funds will come to
dominate the investment platforms, and they will evolve into mutual
fund structures." Most importantly, "Art will always have many
advantages over the traditional asset once its nature is better
understood."
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By her own admission, she is not a born artist. But very slowly and
gradually she picked up the nuances of the medium she is now dealing
in. It took more than hard work and dedication to excel in the world
of art for Apeksha Mathur. It was her father who guided and directed
her to choose her calling in life. And after that her artistic talent,
which was hidden for so many years and which she herself was not aware
of, was chiseled to near perfection by her teachers.
"With no artistic background, when I entered the College of Arts in
Delhi, I had to start from scratch. And I give all credit to my
teachers. The second motivating factor was the annual exhibition held
at the college in which all my creations were sold out," says Apeksha,
a resident of Nirman Vihar in East Delhi.
Apeksha has done her masters in fine arts from the College of Arts,
Delhi, with specialisation in sculpture and 3D murals.
Although she has worked in various mediums like metal, wood, fibre
glass, metal sheet, ceramics and cement, she is mainly interested
working in ceramics. "My father has a business of tiles and since
childhood I have been fascinated by it. I have a special passion for
ceramics to which sculptural creativity is added. I love to work
freely without any boundary and this freedom is easily visible in my
works," she says.
Regarding the subject of her creations, Apeksha says, "My themes
mostly revolve around human figures in semi-realistic forms and I
enjoy playing with the movement and rhythm of the body. I don’t allow
any inhibition to come my way. I believe in making my way as per my
requirements and idea. With specialization in 3D murals I design
murals as per given area and theme in different mediums keeping in
mind the aesthetics of the location."
She believes that even the ugliest thing on this earth can be
beauti-fied through the medium of art because everything has an inner
beauty which may not be physically seen by human eye but can be
translated through the medium of art into a pleasurable experience.
Apeksha has a workshop in Sector 2, Noida. The initial modelling and
sculpting is done at her workshop in East Delhi and the firing and
glazing is done in Noida.
Although her work is very demanding, the constant support of her
family members is what keeps her going. Some of the places where
Apeksha has created murals are NBCC Plaza, Saket, Deen Dayal Upadhyay
Hospital, Kaka Nagar Club and Andhra School, to name a few. After
having participated in various exhibitions, Apeksha is all set for a
solo exhibition of 3D murals at Poorva Sanskritik Kendra (PSK), Laxmi
Nagar, from November 16 to 30 from 11 a.m. till 10 pm. The exhibition
includes murals in ceramic, fibre glass, metal, wood and mixed media.
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