Take home a bronze!

Sculptures in India are now finding a new market as is evident from a new show in Delhi

Gallery Threshold's latest exhibition, Ltd. Edn., of bronze sculptures at the Gallery Romain Rolland in Delhi, is a mixed bag. There are 21 contemporary artists represented here from the Baroda, Shantiniketan, Bombay, Kerala and Hyderabad schools, who vary in age from the eighties (C S N Patnaik) to the twenties (Sukhdev Rathod) and in the textures of their works from the slick preciseness of Dhruva Mistry's cut-out Spatial Diagram and the realistic symmetry of the works of Gupta and Navjot Altaf, to the broken, rugged surface of Patnaik's Intimacy.

There are some established names here like Dhruv Mistry and Mrinalini Mukherjee (who shows a set of three organic, acquatic, really, forms in bronze, set in flat bowls enamelled in pink, red and yellow) who've done well in the international and auction circuits. And then, there are some who've only recently started out but have already developed a distinctive vocabulary that has fetched them some acclaim.

In this category are Ved Gupta, whose foreshortened figures of a politician and three corporate honcho-types in a huddle are a reflection of his own, rather bitter experiences as a down-and-out student; and Shanthi Swaroopini whose female nudes in various postures of dynamic repose speak of a very gendered aesthetic.

And then there are some ""Karl Antao, M J Enas, N N Rimzon, Pankaj Panwar "" who are in the middle phases of respectable careers. But of this lot, the most interesting in Prithipal Singh Ladi, who was quite the shooting star when he appeared on the horizon around a decade ago, then wasn't heard of much, and has recently come back into the reckoning with two of his works quoted at a high list price of Rs 30 lakh at this year's Saffronart spring online auction.

Ladi's small untitled work in fibreglass is a rather ingenious conception of a couple standing with an iron, on what looks like a grinding stone. ("It is one," confirms Tunty Chauhan, the gallerist. "Besides, he's used Harpic bottles for the human figures.")

Clearly, Indian sculpture is gaining acceptability even if it still doesn't get even half the hype and price that Indian painting has lately been attracting. "For a small gallery like us to do such a show means that there is commercial sense in it, and an increased client support," says Chauhan.

An earlier show, Human Figure, was 60 per cent sold, and Chauhan was more than satisfied with the response. Prices too have been inching up. "Swaroopini, whose one-off works at her solo show at the gallery in April this year were priced at Rs 3-5 lakh, is now going at Rs 3-5 lakh for her edition of fives."

It's perhaps a measure of the confidence of Indian sculptors in themselves and the growing demand for their works that they, like most of their international counterparts and unlike their domestic predecessors, are working in editions of five, seven, or nine.

As a trend, it isn't exactly new "" "Many artists like KS Radhakrishnan have been doing it for 20 years now. And then, there are others like Sarbari Roy Choudhury who still do one-off pieces," informs Art Alive's Sunaina Anand.

The other evidence of the growing popularity of sculpture is the number of artists, better known as painters, who are turning to it. In fact, a leit motif of Ltd. Edn. is the fact that many who are on show here also express themselves in other mediums "" Anandajit Ray is a well known painter, Karl Antao is a visualiser and set-designer, B Manjunath Kamath is a filmmaker, installation artist and painter, Navjot Altaf is a filmmaker, and Sukhdev Rathod a young painter. Earlier too there've been artists like Satish Gujral and K Laxma Goud who were prolific with their sculptures. But lately, many more have joined their ranks.

Dilip Ranade, a little-seen Mumbai-based artist whose drawings show exceptional control and facility with the line, sculpts occasionally, and Paresh Maity, one of the best known names in the Bengal School of painting, has a few sculptures in his collection of drawings, paintings and photographs at the ongoing solo show at the CIMA Gallery in Kolkata.

Evidentally, there's some kind of a churn going in the plastic arts, one that's still at the level of ripples under the surface. But it's straining to emerge out of the eddy, full-bodied and demanding to be heard.

Are art-lovers and art-investors listening?