Asian connections

With prices in the Indian art market soaring, art collectors are being exposed to contemporary art from the rest of Asia.

At a recent showing of three avant-garde Vietnamese artists at Gallerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, the turnout was excellent, but only half the show sold. It was the first instance of a private Mumbai gallery showing a group composed entirely of Asian artists from outside the subcontinent.

Tran Luong, one of the artists, is considered by many critics as the forerunner of exploratory, sometimes subversive, Vietnamese contemporary art. "The response was positive. Either way, we decided it was high time we pushed Indian art lovers to become less insular," says Ranjana Steinruecke, owner, Gallerie M+S.

In an art market where soaring prices are driving even some of the best intentioned buyers away, some feel that looking outside geographical borders might be the only solution.

At the Saffronart autumn online auction this September, Ravinder Reddy's polyester resin fiberglass sculpture overshot its selling estimate of Rs 28,00,000-34,00,000 by Rs 10 lakh and Atul Dodiya's work more than doubled to top Rs 1.20 crore.

"Most buyers feel like they're priced out as far as Indian art is concerned, and other Asian art might just benefit from that," agrees Ganieve Grewal, Christie's India representative.

Last month, for the first time in India, Christie's organised a Mumbai preview of select works from its upcoming Modern and Contemporary South East Asian Art and Asian Contemporary Art auction to be staged later this month in Hong Kong.

Key works by the likes of Indonesia's rising stars Srihadi Sudarsano and Nyoman Masriadi, whose work at an October Sotheby's auction fetched $360,000 against an estimate of $25,000, and Chinese contemporary artists like Zeng Fanzhi and Yue Minjun (his "Execution", at the same auction, sold for $5.9 million) among others, were flown down.

"Our buyers in India have been enquiring after South-east Asian and other Asian artists but were uncomfortable bidding for something they didn't see or understand," says Grewal. And so in a bid to educate, Christie's also brought down specialists in Asian art.

And education is key, says Steinruecke, who alerts her patrons against uninformed shopping in regions like Vietnam.

"So many return with art that is purely decorative and terribly commercial, with such obvious symbolism." She herself, with the help of art critic Girish Shahane, conducted stringent research before zeroing in on Luong, Tran Trong Vu and Dinh Y Nhi for the show.

Vietnam and Indonesia are some of the regions that are said to have benefited from a spill-over effect from China where the art market is skyrocketing.

What also makes the region particularly interesting, say experts, is that artistic expression reflects the modern-day milieu of political repression mixed with capitalist trappings.

For art collector Roohi Oomerbhoy Jaikishen, who has just added two Vietnamese works to her sizeable collection of Indian contemporary works by Atul Dodiya, Surendran Nair and others, says Chinese art, though fabulous, has become out of bounds. "I definitely feel the need to explore beyond my backyard to look at works with a wider international rhetoric," she says.

Mortimer Chatterjee, of Mumbai gallery Chatterjee & Lal, says Korea interests him more because it tends to be more provocative than decorative.

Later this month the gallery is to host "Vanishing Points", a contemporary Japanese group show with art that challenges the abiding trend of "super flat" ("a lack of depth and a manga-like horizontal scrolling movement"), and will include residencies conducted by Japanese installation artists and a separate showing of museum pieces. There will be no selling.

"Asian art is interesting to Indian art enthusiasts because there are so many references they understand; yet representation differs, so it seems fresh," says Chatterjee.

In that sense primary galleries are taking up the traditional role of museums in exposing local audiences to international artists of repute, not just from Asia but also the West. Gallerie M+S showed American art icon Kiki Smith earlier and is bringing down German painter, sculptor and installation artist Jonathan Meese in January.

"Visitors to Smith's show were surprised to see that her prints and drawings were so affordable," says Steinruecke. Chatterjee & Lal kicked off with Dutch artist Sophie Ernst and is currently showing Rashid Rana, one of the most important figures among the new generation of Pakistani artists.

"When we brought Rana here in 2004 sales were very disappointing, but now he's one of the five hottest stars of the subcontinent," says Chatterjee.

In September, at Christie's South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art auction, Rana's "A Day In The Life Of Landscape", a digital print, overshot its pre-sale estimates of $50,000-70,000 and sold for $133,000.

"There is certainly a part of our buyer base that's growing more global in outlook," he adds. Grewal says Christie's will now conduct Indian previews for all its South-east and Asian art auctions. But she warns that the Indian market itself shows no signs of slowing down.