After Gaitonde and Raza, who are the new Old Masters of Indian art world?

Subodh Gupta is set to enter the big league but there are others too

Seen through the eyes of billionaire collectors and big-ticket auctions, the art world invariably points to a list of signatures that keeps the cash registers ringing: V S Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, and S H Raza whose work 

commands tens of crores at auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Following his death on Monday, the work of Akbar Padamsee is also expected to fetch a higher price this year.  

But who are the next big-hitters of the Indian art world? Yamini Mehta, Sotheby’s deputy chairman, Indian and South Asian Art, deflects the question by making a broader point. “We look at the artists we offer at Sotheby’s within the context of the wider art historical canon and are both careful and sensitive about introducing new artists into our auctions.”

Mehta adds that Sotheby’s looks for critical and commercial appeal as well as quality in concept and execution.

But she does offer the names of some young contemporary artists doing notable work such as Abir Karmakar and Salman Toor. “They are the new young ‘Old Masters’ and interesting artists to watch but it is important for artists to have a strong primary market before including them in our auctions,” says Mehta.

She says Sotheby’s looks at where artists have shown their work, who is representing them, who has written about them and who is collecting them carefully before adding them to an auction. Other art experts suggest that Subodh Gupta will be the one living artist to cross the threshold. Ashvin Rajagopalan of the Piramal Art Foundation says Gupta is going to be the fastest living artist to reach the million-dollar mark as an average price. Across the board, a reappraisal is underway of artists who had not received their due but are now getting important retrospectives and are being included in literature.

“The Progressive Artists Group has long cast a shadow in our field but we are happy to see artists such as Bhupen Khakhar, Arpita Singh, Nasreen Mohamedi, Prabhakar Barwe, Gieve Patel, Sudhir Patwardhan and others gain ground,” says Mehta. 

Although Anish Kapoor is based in England, he spent his childhood and formative years in India and is also recognised internationally. 

Dinesh Vazirani, founder of Saffron Art Gallery, says that in terms of commanding high prices, other upcoming artists include Rameshwar Broota, Jogen Chowdhury and Himmat Shah. 

“Beyond talent, it takes a specific checklist to cross a certain price threshold. That takes a body of work over several decades, international shows, and dedicated patronage amongst collectors,” he said.   Sangita Jindal, publisher of Art India magazine, adds that two other vital metrics are consistent critical acclaim and auction performance. 

If some earlier artists have been neglected, it’s also because of an absence of historical records which has left a lot of deep rich talent remaining unappreciated, according to Mortimer Chatterjee, co-founder of Mumbai art gallery Chatterjee & Lal.  “The whole talk of the Bombay Progressives has been such a red herring because it led the conversation away from those not in it,” said Chatterjee.

Rakhi Sarkar, founder of CIMA art gallery in Kolkata, believes that while it is important to note that living artists don’t appreciate more than 10 or 15 per cent a year, the ones with serious long term million-dollar potential include artists such as Ganesh Pyne.

Others see it differently. For Reena Lath, director, Akar Prakar Gallery in the capital, it is important to note that in 1997, the first ever homegrown Indian auction house ‘Heart’ was established more as an auction for promoting the arts than for profit.

“I remember the room was full of important industrialists and collectors of art. Some had come to watch and some to collect, more to support the initiative than really looking at art as an investment,” she said.

At that time, she recalls, a Ganesh Pyne was among the most expensive works, selling for the handsome price of Rs 10 lakhs. “In that same auction a Souza which was at least five times larger than the Pyne, sold for just Rs 60,000. Today a Souza is considered ‘a super-duper’ investment,” she said.

If experts and critics agree on one thing, it is that price is merely one criterion that decides the value of an artwork and not necessarily the definitive one. 

"Art can aesthetically be worth a million bucks but the markets don’t know it yet," said Lath somewhat enigmatically.