Sellout season

BUSINESS CLASS

The September sales in New York created a staggering number of world records for Indian artists of most generations, from F N Souza to Arpita Singh to Atul Dodiya and, of course, Tyeb Mehta.

Although the trade was pleased as punch about this long-awaited triumph, the fallout of these record prices is that no dealer knows how to price comparable works.

Resale prices have become so closely linked to auction prices that there is virtually no chance of buying works like those offered at auction on the private market at below auction prices! As a result, the only thing that is selling frantically is new works made by artists for shows.

So, if you're a resonably good artist with a reasonably good gallery, it's most likely that your show will be a sellout "" as shows of new works are more realistically priced.

I was in Bangalore last year when a friend of mine pointed me to a show by artists living in France. He fell in love with a tiny work by Paris-based abstractionist Rajindra Dhawan for Rs 50,000.

Of the six works available, only one sold, that too to my friend. Dhawan, now represented by Bodhi Art, held a show in Mumbai last week.

My friend from Bangalore called me up to tell me he wanted to buy a work from the show but couldn't, and not just because the works were five times over the price of the previous year, but because the entire show had sold out!

It's not been very different with Delhi-based artist Jagannath Panda, whose works were available for under Rs 1 lakh. With his price skyrocketing 10 times that at the last Saffron auction, Orissa-born Panda became an instant superstar.

As a result, large works by Panda are on offer at five times what they would have fetched last year, at Delhi's Nature Morte currently (and yes, all the works are sold).

But you need not have an auction record breaker to have a sellout show. Relatively unknown but serious artists like Delhi-based Rajnish Kaur and Mumbai's Sheetal Gattani had sellout shows recently.

The better known G R Iranna's show also sold out in New Delhi, as have group shows like Paths of Progression, which is showing in Singapore on the last leg of its world tour. Palette Art Gallery did even better with its Masters show "" it didn't sell out because it was not for sale!

Everyone in India and their NRI cousin have decided art is the thing to buy. It's classy, you look intellectual, it matches the sofa, and the price goes up!

The worrying factor, though, still remains the link between resale and auction prices. Unless that changes, chances are that the sellout season will last for a while.