CONTEMPORARY ONE WORD SEVERAL WORLDS

mercredi 25 février 2009



Lucile, Warli land, Thane district. Hervé, view of Mumbai’s bay from Raza birthday party. February 2009

Sale of the century: The YSL auction

John Lichfield reports. Source : The Independant

Forget the credit crunch when the world's most expensive chair sells for €21.9m. The Yves Saint Laurent auction in Paris this week broke record after record for art sales and raised €400m for charity.

Crisis? What crisis? The record-trampling sale of the century at the Grand Palais in Paris this week has proved one thing at least. The rich, just like the poor, are always with us, even if they prefer not to reveal their names. The three-day auction of 730 antiquities, paintings, sculptures, objets d'art and pieces of furniture which belonged to the late fashion designer, Yves Saint Laurent, smashed a dozen art-market records in its first two days.
The world's most expensive armchair is now a sinister-looking "dragon chair", created by the Irish designer Eileen Gray. At €21.9m (£19.6m), the highest figure ever paid for a piece of 20th-century furniture, it is unlikely that anyone will ever dare sit on it again. The overall total of €59m raised for Saint Laurent's furniture and furnishings on Tuesday night was the highest figure achieved in a furniture sale.
The auction, which has attracted collectors, celebrities, dealers and wheeler-dealers from all over the world, has also set new records for works of art by Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, James Ensor, Piet Mondrian, Giorgio de Chirico, Théodore Gèricault, Dominique Ingres and Jacques-Louis David. On the first evening alone, the sale raised €206m, smashing the previous record for the auction of a private collection. By last night, the end of the third day of bidding, the collection – sold by Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent's heir and former boyfriend and business manager – was expected to raise up to €400m for Aids research and other charities.
> read more

lundi 23 février 2009

New & affordable

Source : Express India by Georgina Maddox. The fraternity is looking for less traditional ways to beat the slump.
In a time where everyone is counting their pennies and rupees, it is difficult to sell anything. Art is not an exception. However, auction houses and galleries are exploring new ways to deal with the economic slump. Consequently, new and exciting avenues are opening up in the face of what would usually be a glum scenario, from fresh faces to new destinations to take art.
It was interesting to note that Saffronart, the online auction portal, held an actual opening at the Jehangir Art Gallery for their ongoing summer auction. Many of the names under the works on display were new. Stunningly, some of the starting bids for art works were as low as Rs 30,000.
The online art portal that was known in the last five years for putting Indian art on the NRI market, hosted the opening at the Jehangir to attract more people and get a newer market excited about ‘affordable’ art. A quick flip through the catalogue reveals that all the newer artists who have made it into the auction are younger, some names that have not even been heard much in the art circuit.
Dinesh Vazirani, director of Saffronart, indicates that this has a lot to do with the new market that is emerging after all the hoopla around the boom has died down. “The market is now healthy and the prices being quoted are more realistic. What happened with the boom is that several transitory buyers, who were in it just for profit and not for the art, constituted the market,” says Vazirani of the trends of 2004 to 2007. “Now, the buyers who are putting money into art really want to have it on their walls. Also with the pricing of art becoming more affordable a new market of young corporate buyers interested in new names has come up,” he reasons.
> read more

jeudi 12 février 2009

Recession triggers improvement in Indian art quality

Source : Irish Sun The global economic downturn has had a surprisingly positive impact on Indian contemporary art with the focus shifting from price to quality. It has also led to the emergence of European collectors as the main buyers due to the erosion of the US market, say experts.
Contemporary artist Bose Krishnamachari, who has curated a special Indian Panorama section for the ongoing international art fair ARCO-Madrid, told IANS: 'The economic downturn has led to artists concentrating on the quality of art work rather than on prices.'
India is the guest country at the 28th edition of the prestigious art fair, with 14 galleries exhibiting over 100 works by 54 young artists.
'The quality of this fair is very evolved because it draws the crème of collectors and buyers from across Europe - that include both private and institutional,' said Krishnamachari.
'One of the effects of the recession is that we have started prioritising the European market to carry Indian art to the next level. The American buyers´ base appears stretched because several of them, who have been affected by the economic slide, have disappeared,' said Peter Nagy of Nature Morte Gallery, who has two kiosks at ARCO-Madrid.
'In the US, buyers of Indian art are mostly NRIs. The European market is made of institutional and private collectors - most of whom are westerners. Several Indian artists have ready markets across countries like Italy and France,' said Nagy.
'I am very happy with the representation of artists and the quality of artworks on display from India. The country has a talented pool of young artists and some of the works, especially those by Jitish Kallat and Shilpa Gupta, are fantastic. The market is also steady and I am sure the country will do well globally,' said ARCO-Madrid director Lourdes Fernandez.

Indian art attracts optimistic European response at Spanish fair

Source: Headlines India Madrid: Indian art is the flavour of the season in Europe, with over 100 works of 54 contemporary artists of the country being under the spotlight at the ongoing 28th edition of the ARCO-Madrid – one of the most prestigious art fairs of the continent. ARCO-Madrid opened Wednesday at the sprawling trade fair complex of the Institucion Ferial de Madrid (IFEMA) – the country's official agency that hosts international trade conclaves – in the business district of the Spanish capital.
The mood was one of hard business as the top officials of ARCO-Madrid set the tone of the Feb 11-16 event, introducing India as the guest country and fair highlight to the European press, investors and collectors.
Artists in their 20s and 30s are the toast of the Indian selection. They are exhibiting an amazing variety of art that includes sculptures, video installations, electronic art, performance art, photographs and new media art practices that combines diverse genres like sound, theatrics and visual art – far removed from the shadow of the early modern masters.
"I am very happy with the representation of artists and the quality of artworks on display from India. We are upbeat about the response over the next five days," ARCO-Madrid director Lourdes Fernandez said.
The Indian Panorama centres around an exhibition featuring art works by young artists curated by Bose Krishnamachari, a leading contemporary artist.
"The primary aim was to showcase the country�s diversity. I shortlisted the artists and requisitioned the galleries they are associated with to select the artworks and filtered them. We deliberately stayed away from traditional art while portraying Indian realities because the boundaries between local and global are blurring. Young art is mirror to the society," said Krishnamachari.
A look at the Indian Panorama section and interactions with galleries from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore suggested new trends.
The focus is shifting from conventional canvas art to installations and new media art that intend to drive home social messages. Moreover, photographs of the Indian way of life were being considered legitimate works of art in the quality-conscious Spanish market controlled by museums, institutions, high-end galleries and moneyed individual collectors.
Even as new faces like Jitish Kallat, Shilpa Gupta, Dayanita Singh, Nilima Sheikh, Chintan Upadhyay, Manjunath Kamath and Pors & Rao are finding berths in European collections, Subodh Gupta continues to be a popular name in terms of interest and prices. However, he is not on the Indian Panorama list at ARCO-Madrid.
Gallery owners said the initial response to their art was more than satisfactory.
Peter Nagy of Nature Morte Gallery has two kiosks at ARCO-Madrid. The gallery is also hosting photographer Dayanita Singh in a solo show.
According to Nagy, the response on day one to Singh�s black-and-white snapshots of the Sundarban delta and coloured trees was "very positive".
"Photography has become an oeuvre because of the lot of machinery and processes involved. It does hold a space on the wall," Nagy said.
Mumbai-based Bodhi Art is exhibiting new age art by Shilpa Gupta. The collection comprises a body of light art, photographs and microphone installations that talk of the changing world and "India�s tryst with destiny" culled from Jawaharlal Nehru�s historic speech.
The centrepiece of the show titled "Tryst with Destiny", a microphone installation with photographs and an excerpt of Nehru�s speech set to music, is already closed for sale. It was priced at 10,000 Euros ($13,000).
"The buyer is a Madrid-based European collector," said Sharmishtha Ray of Bodhi Art.
According to her, Shilpa Gupta, who works with light and sound, has a "strong market" outside India.
"She is very popular in France. But I noticed that Spanish, Swiss and Belgian collectors are also taking time out to enquire about her works," Ray said.
Mumbai-based gallery Chemould Prescott is exhibiting photographs, mixed media and installations by Jitish Killat.
"The reason why he is liked across Europe is the fact that his works are rooted in his country and city, Mumbai, where he lives. His dialogue has always been between himself and his city and the chaos that surrounds him," said Shireen Gandhy of Chemould Prescott.
Two of his works -- "Aquasaurus", a sculpture depicting an old skeleton-like water carrier and a series of water paintings on paper titled "Traumanama" -- drew huge crowds.
Gallery Espace is pitching Chintan Upadhyay and young installation artist Manjunath Kamath, who has generated curiosity with his sculpture "Vishnu Vilas".
"The market has witnessed a lot of corrections lately and it has given buyers access to good art at affordable prices," said Sunil Gautam, managing director of Hanmer MS&L, which is trying to rope in European galleries for its Aug 19-22 India Art Summit in New Delhi.(IANS)

The Art Market Becomes Truly Global Reveals New Tefaf Report

Source: Artdaily The art market has become a global marketplace with new collectors in emerging economies who may contribute towards protecting it from the current international economic situation. This fundamental shift in the geography of art buying is revealed in a new report commissioned by The European Fine Art Foundation which organises The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) to be held in the Dutch city of Maastricht in the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre) from 13-22 March 2009... The report takes a detailed look at the growing importance of China, Russia, India and the Middle East in the art market in recent years. It also examines the past and possible future effects of the current world economic climate on international art buying... Total sales of Indian art in 2007 were €243 million of which 30% occurred within India and 70% were in other centres such as London, New York and Dubai.

samedi 7 février 2009

Bodhi shuts shop

By Riddhi Doshi Mumbai. Source : DNA India.
Recession has claimed yet another victim, only this time on a much bigger scale. Bodhi art gallery, the sole Indian art gallery that had its branches in three international cities, has shut shop in New York and will soon close down in Berlin too. Remaining quite tight-lipped, Sharmistha Ray from Bodhi art gallery confirms, "We have closed down the New York gallery and we will be closing the one in Berlin by mid-February."
When DNA had contacted Bodhi earlier on the same, they had rubbished the matter. And though Sharmistha doesn't share the status of the other three galleries in Delhi, Singapore and Mumbai, our sources allege that they will soon close their galleries in Delhi and Singapore as well. "Their flagship gallery in Mumbai will be the centre point of their business now. They have been getting all the art works down to Mumbai and have also been selling a lot of their art works from their counterparts," reveals a source.
Bodhi had rented spaces in Berlin, Singapore as well as in New York. "Bodhi opened five galleries in the span of about two years. They expanded very rapidly. And now due to the economic meltdown, maintaining these spaces would've proved to be a tough task" adds the source.

ARCO HIT BY CRISIS

Source : Artforum
The APA, via Der Standard, reports on the ARCO fair, which is slated to run February 11–16. In contrast to last year’s record edition—which saw attendance increase to two hundred thousand visitors and sales rise by 15 percent—the upcoming twenty-eighth edition is showing signs of slowing down amid the world financial crisis. According to Der Standard, 20 galleries from the 270 announced have canceled, including Lisson, the Mexican gallery OMR, the Argentinean gallery Ruth Benzacar, and longtime Spanish participant Oliva Arauna. The number of cancellations could have been even greater; a last-minute subsidy from the Portuguese minister of culture saved another twelve Portuguese galleries from canceling their stands at the popular Spanish fair. “This year we are working twice as much, most likely in order to achieve half of what we achieved last year,” said ARCO director Lourdes Fernandez, who believes that the impact of the financial crisis will really hit home in 2010, if the situation does not improve. Yet citing a report in Bloomberg, Der Standard notes that international art prices are remaining stable while sales continue to fall. Despite the crisis, Fernandez is hoping that this year’s guest, India, will attract both visitors and sales. Over the past decade, Indian art has been one of the fastest-growing international sectors.

Indian Art Market lands in Madrid with all its Muscle

Source : India Infoline
A total of 13 galleries and over 50 artists selected by the curator Bose Krishnamachari will give European investors a unique insight into the fascinating Indian art scene.
ARCOmadrid, the 28th International Contemporary Art Fair, has the honour of hosting India as this year's guest country. All the diversity and wealth of Indian visual arts will be landing in the Spanish capital in an unprecedented show that is already arousing a great deal of interest. A total of 13 galleries and over 50 artists selected by the curator Bose Krishnamachari will give European investors a unique insight into the fascinating Indian art scene.
Panorama: India at ARCOmadrid_2009 will offer a faithful cross-section of the booming Indian market. "India's participation at ARCOmadrid_2009 is a historical watershed," claims Krishnamachari "with the fair recognising the role played by Indian contemporary art within the international art scene." Coming from Mumbai are influential and internationally renowned galleries including BODHI ART, CHATTERJEE&LAL, THE GUILD, SAKSHI GALLERY, CHEMOULD PRESCOTT, PROJECT 88 and MIRCHANDANI and STEINRUECKE.
Travelling from New Delhi are VADHERA GALLERY, PHOTOINK, NATURE MORTE, NEW DELHI and ESPACE. The Indian contingent is then rounded off with two galleries from peripheral areas: GALLERY SKE from Bangalore and KASHI ART GALLERY from Cochin, Kerala, who are adding further diversity to the Indian participation at the fair.

lundi 2 février 2009

Art Sales: TV Santhosh's Living With a Wound



Living With a Wound, paintings of November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai by Indian artist TV Santhosh, may help the Indian art market avoid the chill of recession. By Colin Gleadell. Source : Telegraph
Paintings by one of India's most successful young artists that were made in response to last November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai are to be exhibited for the first time in London this week. Drawing on details from the newspaper and television images that shocked the world, the artist TV Santhosh, whose work has attracted the attention of British collectors Frank Cohen and Charles Saatchi, has painted the images so they look like photographic negatives imbued with garish neon green, yellow and red colours. In one, security guards pour out of a truck as the bombs are going off; in another, a sniffer dog is at work outside the Taj Mahal Hotel where a car has just exploded; and in a third, a woman searches through the rubble carrying a piece of paper with a child's photograph on it.
The exhibition, entitled Living with a Wound, comes at a time when the Indian art market is feeling the chill of recession. Having experienced an unparalleled five-year boom, at first for modern art from the Fifties and Sixties, and then for more recent work by younger artists, cracks began to appear last autumn. In September, a sale at Sotheby's saw half the works by Indian contemporary artists go unsold. In October, ArtTactic, a research group which analyses the performance of emerging markets, reported that confidence in the Indian contemporary art market had fallen drastically, and blamed the withdrawal of speculators who had moved in in force over the previous two years.
> read full article

Archives revue de presse

Nombre total de pages vues