Atul Dodiya Multiple Modernities: India, 1905-2005 Indian Contemporary Art Award Winners Announced Emerging Artists to Benefit from Indian Billionaire's Charity Strong Sales at Asia Week Inside the Indian Art Market Atul Dodiya, Part II Armory Show Report: Day 1

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ART + AUCTION

In September 2002, Tyeb Mehtas color-charged Celebration (1995), estimated at $180,000 to $200,000, fetched $317,500 at Christies New York, making it the first Indian painting to exceed $100,000 at auction. Just three years later, Christies sold another work by the Mumbai-based artist, Mahisasura (1997), for $1.6 millionthen a record for Indian painting and sculpture at auction.

Before their prices passed the million-dollar mark, the most prominent Indian artists were barely known in the West. Among them are the modernists of the European-influenced Progressive Artists Group, including Mehta, M.F. Husain, Ram Kumar, Akbar Padamsee, S.H. Raza and F.N. Souza, along with more contemporary figures such as Atul Dodiya, Subodh Gupta and Ravinder Reddy. But then, in a very short time, the market for their work rapidly gained international currency.

With just a handful of galleries in the U.S. and the U.K. specializing in modern and contemporary Indian art and the Mumbai and Delhi gallery scenes continents away, Western auction houses have been energetically promoting the field.

The auctions have become the primary market instead of the secondary market for some younger artists, says New York dealer Deepak Talwar. A new painting by Nalini Malan, for example, was in the artists show at the Sakshi gallery in Mumbai at the time it sold at Christies New York earlier this year.

So far, most of the interest in these artists has come directly from India, where the booming economy has been fueling the fast-growing market. According to Forbes, there are currently 27 billionaires in Indiatwice as many as last yearwith a cumulative net worth of $106 billion. A global community of newly wealthy non-resident Indians cultivating a taste for art is also snapping up works.

These deep-pocketed buyers made the recent spring auction season in New York the strongest ever, with tallies exceeding those of the Chinese contemporary art sale at Sothebys during the same week in March. At Sothebys, S.H. Razas Tapovan, a glowing, abstract landscape from 1972, sold for a record $1.5 million (est. $800,000-$1 million), the same price a meditative 1975 abstraction by Vasudeo S. Gaitonde sold for at Christies.

While the modern artists really command the highest prices, says Yamini Mehta, head of modern and contemporary Indian art at Christies, theres really interest across the board, particularly for younger artists. That was evident at Christies, when Subodh Guptas Ok Mili (2005), an installation of stainless-steel cooking utensils, brought a record $144,000 (est. $20,000-$30,000) and Ravinder Reddys sculpture Woman of Kapulapadu II (2000) fetched $168,000 (est. $80,000-$100,000), an artist record.

Talwar sees a possible downside to new works selling at auction so quickly. When things go straight to the auction room, it means bypassing the gallery exhibition, the audience and the awareness. Somebody will have to pay for these shortcuts later.

But for now, such concerns are secondary to keeping up with the demand for these works both inside and outside India. These days, its an investors game, says Pravina Mecklai of Jamaat Art in Mumbai. You have to bid above a given price to get a work into a gallery. I am shaking with wonder as to where this madness is going.

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