We may not always know the names behind the auction paddles, but there are many more collectors in India than we take credit for.
The more rational among us will never understand the reason why a collector is prompted to splurge excessively or at least over a previously budgeted amount for a work of art. But what we do know is that when they’re motivated, they won’t stop at anything to get the artwork, or artist, of their choice. Often, the big-ticket buys get tom-tomed — so we know that Kiran Nadar paid the highest-ever sum of Rs 16.4 crore for a painting by S H Raza at Christie’s auction in London earlier this month, or that Tina Ambani (whom we had not previously considered a collector) paid Rs 10.5 crore for a painting by F N Souza in 2008 — but think of the many clicks at Saffronart’s recent online auction that moved a modestly priced work by Laxma Goud from a higher estimate of Rs 2.25 lakh to a realised one of Rs 8.12 lakh, or Thota Vaikuntam from Rs 2.92 lakh to Rs 11 lakh, and you will begin to get an inkling of the passion that moves collectors.
Too often, too many gallery owners lament the lack of a market — or at least a collecting market — for art, quoting figures as ridiculously low as 20 or 25 collectors for all of India. (A better estimate would be about 300 serious collectors from a base of a couple of thousand less devoted collectors.) While it is valid that many of the country’s wealthy buy just enough art for their walls in their city homes, farmhouses and offices, when does such art turn into a “collection”? Is it based on numbers (100 works and above)? Or is it based on their pursuit of works by a single or small group of artists, or a particular theme or style? Does it have to do with the collected artist so, for instance, Jamini Roy is fine by Laila Rajpal Khan is beyond the pale? Does it have anything to do with being seen at art events? Or can they be known as collectors only if they buy and sell vigorously? None of this is, of course, the whole truth, but none of it is, also, far from the truth.
While the ability to buy art is one criterion, being able to buy with a focus is what turns the simple act of buying into collecting. Indians, by and large, tend not to be unifocused on any one artist but spread themselves fairly wide, and are therefore more representational of a style (modern, for instance, as opposed to contemporary; or vice versa), filling in the gaps with all or most artists who form the bulwark of that particular period or style. This represents steady but rationalised buying rather than the passionate frenzy that the art trade might prefer, but make no bones, there are enough and more collectors out there, and that number is growing. Because most galleries specialise in only a few artists, their own base of collectors might appear small to them, so it befalls them to broaden their horizons not by extending the gallery’s focus (which would only weaken its uniqueness) but through outreach programmes to draw in collectors or potential collectors from communities outside its own.
Typically, collectors earlier would negotiate and buy directly from artists. But as the industry has become more complex — collectors now want sale deeds, certificates of authenticity, insurance and so on — it has brought the role of the gallery, or dealer, to a more central position. Nor are they as secretive about their identity as they were earlier. As a result, it is possible to figure out the sale of works in the secondary markets among collectors, not necessarily because they are publicised, but because of visual excess that allows us to realise that the Atul Dodiya painting in front of which Religare’s Malvinder Singh gives business interviews was earlier on offer at a Christie’s auction. Or that Jehangir Sabavala’s The Casuarina Line I, which created a record for the artist at the Saffronart sale last week (Rs 1.7 crore against a high estimate of Rs 50 lakh) had belonged, till recently, to collector Haresh Chaganlal.
The interesting trend therefore is not just that collectors are buying works they may have glimpsed in each other’s collections, but that they’re paying for it in top rupee billing. And while you figure out whether that translates into just another market or a collecting market, there’s today’s Osian’s auction in Mumbai of “101 masterpieces” where, no doubt, the collecting cognoscenti will be present in person or through proxy to put in their bids in a market that has already put any notions of slowing down behind it. And to find out who’s collecting in India, as the saying goes, all you have to do is “follow the money trail”.
