Coming back to paint

Indian artists abroad are coming back home, where the art market is on an all-new high.

On a whirlwind two-day personal trip to Delhi, Paris-based Indian artist Sujata Bajaj has squeezed in an interview. Busying her little daughter with computer games, Bajaj says proudly, "She's fluent in French, English, Hindi and Marathi already."

Bajaj, who has been living in Paris for the past 16 years with her daughter and Norwegian husband, looks traditional in her block-printed salwar kameez, handicraft jhola and mehendi painted hands. Bajaj went to Paris on a scholarship and decided to stay on.

Apart from a marriage, Bajaj feels, "Paris gave me the liberty of expression to find my own language without the pressure of performance that I felt in India."

Though she's been doing shows in India and around Europe regularly for the past few years, she's now focussing on showing her work in Indian cities. She considers India as important now as any other art hubs like Paris or London.

She has two solo shows lined up in Delhi and Mumbai next year. "In fact," says Bajaj, "the art scene in Paris right now is on the downside, the action is happening with Indian art."

Are Indian artists living abroad eager to show and sell more in India nowadays? Or is the art market searching around for more Indian artists who have a name, to prop it up?

Bharati Chaturvedi, art critic, feels, "The current art market in India is accommodating Indian artists, even those living abroad increasingly, as the market is now demand driven." They are not new artists but are now getting increasingly popular in their real homeland.

S H Raza is the most familiar among those names, an Indian artist who made his home in Paris all those decades ago (F N Souza too spent the bulk of his life in London and Paris).

"Even if I lived abroad," Raza says, "I painted India." He shuttled frequently between France and India for shows, and to capture Indian sensibilities in his acrylic abstracts.

Sakti Burman too has been living in Paris for the last 50 years. He recently bought a house in Delhi and now stays for four-five months in India. This he's done "not just for the opportunity that the Indian art market offers now, but also to explore and seek inspiration", he says.

Burman has shows scheduled in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata all the way up to 2008. A couple of years ago, Burman could sell only watercolours in India, and then after bargaining sessions with buyers, but recent years have seen his oils gain in popularity with Indian collectors at higher prices.

"This is a good time to do shows in India," he says, "I cannot satisfy the demand, and even some of my incomplete works are already booked."

The prices of most expat Indian artists had begun to stagnate before the market picked up in India. Before 1999, Paris-based artist Akkitham Narayanan recalls slashing the price on his works by a third or even a fifth for shows in India.

Now, though, people are more than willing to pay the current average Rs 2.5 lakh price per work. Narayanan is still fascinated by images of tantric art that influence his abstracts. But do most Indian artists living abroad tend to paint an "exotic" notion of India?

Narayanan suggests that Indian artists are more American than European. From family visits to touching base with India for exhibitions once every 2-4 years, Narayanan held a solo show last December in Mumbai. This October he'll be showing in Delhi after 31 years.

"It's good to be known in your own country and that's why it's crucial to show more here," says gallerist Sunaina Anand of Art Alive Gallery.

And even if Indian artists overseas are not able to personally frequent India, they are making sure that their works find a place in exhibitions back home in India. Paris-based Rajendra Dhawan feels that collectors, buyers and gallerists have started focussing on Indian talent overseas.

London born and based Amrit and Rabindra Singh had a series of miniature works to buy off-the-wall at a solo exhibition earlier this year in Delhi.

"The Twins", as they are usually referred in the art circles, only do commissioned works but are eager to produce more works for sale and exhibition in India.

"India is where our heart is and where we began our work," says Amrit. Rabindra adds, "There has been a major impact on our Indian collector base since our first solo exhibition tour in 2003."

After years of struggle in art hubs like Paris where establishing oneself was difficult and critics were usually quite harsh, Indian artists living abroad are returning to their roots. And while they're getting connected, the timing is just right.