The second edition of India Art Festival, which began here today, seeks to promote new artists while providing them a platform to display there talent on a global level.
The 3-day-long festival, which is being held at Thyagraj Stadium, has brought 35 art galleries and over 400 artists from 25 Indian cities and 6 countries under one roof with an aim to facilitate dialogue between art galleries, independent artists and art connoisseurs.
The festival is also featuring the art works of art pioneers like M F Hussain, S H Raza, Jogen Chowdhry along with western masters-- Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and many others.
"When we were organising the festival in Mumbai, we noticed that many artists from northern parts of the country were participating. They were keen to have a festival in Delhi where they could participate with reasonable charges. So, we decided to bring it here," Festival Director Rajendra said.
The event celebrates contemporary and modern art and seeks to provide a platform for upcoming artists.
"The main purpose was to democratise the art weaving and art buying process by mingling the less privileged Indian artists with the masters.
"Most of the festival which are organised are on international level and have a certain benchmark which is not easy for small art galleries or artists to match up to."
The festival had also hosted an international edition at World Trade Centre in Seoul.
"Gallery is a very important constituent of the art market which must grow but we have hardly 400 galleries in our country which are majorly in metro cities whereas we have around 80,000 artists.
A private gallery functions only on commercial basis and will only display the celebrity artists since they have to survive. So, where will the upcoming artists go. This festival is a synergy of all those processes coming together and generating funds which is beneficial for the artists," he said.
While there are scores of participants from within the country, the six international participants include art galleries from Singapore, Dubai, Myanmar and Tanzania.
The fair is set to continue till January 22.
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