Art's eternal vernal season

BUSINESS CLASS

Auction houses increasingly peddle younger artists.

The number of auctions of Indian art has increased manifold in the last one year. Until last year, the major activity was concentrated in the fall and spring sales held by Sotheby's and Christie's.

With Saffronart becoming a serious player in the market as well as Osian's holding regular sales, art auctions are now spread over the entire year, giving buyers and sellers a chance to transact on a monthly basis.

Another English auction house, Bonhams, which has been selling Indian contemporary art at its sales, has also got more aggressive in this arena in the last year.

It managed to pull together a rather interesting selection of, mostly, high-value Progressives paintings in its recent sale held on 29th April.

World records of some artists were shattered at the Bonhams sale. Saffronart is also experimenting with a new strategy in it's upcoming sale at the end of this month.

Even though the Bonhams sale did not get off to a good start with two canvases of artist N S Bendre not selling, it soon made up for it with the sale of an early 1980's charming M F Husain for almost 80,000 pounds or approximately Rs 65 lakhs.

Bonhams, like Sotheby's, manages to source works mainly from private collections in Europe and America. What is happening with Indian art sales is that fresh and reputable works in good condition are beginning to attract more interest and higher prices.

The recent Husains fetched fair prices. A 1950's F N Souza drawing sold for 1,800 pounds or about Rs 1.4 lakh. Souza's canvases, mostly from English and Scottish collections, attracted very good prices.

An angular, strong red portrait of a man sold for 75,000 pounds (approximately Rs 60 lakh). However, the real surprise was a J S Swaminathan bird and tree painting from a Swiss collection which made a whopping 145,000 pounds or Rs 1.2 crore, making it one of the most expensive Indian paintings sold at an auction.

With the sale of this lot, Bonhams sale will now certainly be part of the bigger circuit of collectors. The Saffronart sale that's coming up at the end of the month, also offers some interesting lots.

It contains the usual dose of Progressives but in comparison to Bonhams, it is offering mostly recent works. There are recent S H Raza canvases, Husains, Padamsees and Ram Kumars.

However, the Saffronart sale does have some 50s Souzas, a charming drawing by V S Gaitonde and many other interesting lots from that generation.

With this sale, Saffronart has taken a bigger plunge to sell an increasing number of younger artists. Although it has been dabbling in young artists in its recent sales but in the upcoming sale, the sheer number of young artists and the number of mediums has expanded.

The auction will also feature works by Surenderan Nair, Atul Dodiya and Natraj Sharma, the superstars of the now not so young generation.

The sale also includes almost all the Bombay Boys as well as works by A Balasubramaniam, Manisha Parekh, Anju Dodiya and even Jaggananth Panda.

For most of the NRIs who buy only at auctions, this might be a good way to start looking seriously at younger artists and for collectors who were edged off the auction block because of sky-rocketing prices, this sale should be a homecoming.