Investors bet on younger artists
Contemporary artists seem to be enjoying the advantage of attracting a wide cross-section of buyers from the across the world.
By Ashoke Nag, TNN |
KOLKATA: Art circles are now wondering which category of artists will rise faster on the price charts. With young contemporary artists setting new benchmarks at the recent Christie’s auction in Hong Kong, market watchers are trying to project the potential of price rise of these different segments of artists. Broadly, the artists fraternity classifies into the blue chip, senior and younger modernists and the contemporary group. The contemporary community, again, is divided into the top and middle-rung brackets.
“There are varying scenarios being experienced by the artist groups. Some of the highend contemporary artists are fast shooting up on the price front and could be heading toward the dizzy heights achieved by some modern masters. Contemporary artists seem to be enjoying the advantage of attracting a wide cross-section of buyers from the across the world. This includes domestic Indians, NRIs and mainstream foreigners in the West and Asian countries. In fact, the young contemporaries from India appear to taking after their Chinese counterparts, some of whom are scaling prices which are 10 or more times above the Indian levels,” an art market source told ET.
Investors may be also projecting that the younger generation harbours a longer period of creativity which would enable them to stock more works and look for further appreciation in prices. Analysts are of the view that a section of the bigger league contemporaries could finally catch up with the tallest price brackets of the modern masters.
“Some of the modern greats have reached astronomical price points and have entered a consolidation phase. In recent times, these names have not seen much growth in prices. The feeling is that these artists may take a while to set new benchmarks. Of course, there is scope for speculation on that score. The view also is that the auctions are not always seeing rare and top quality works by these masters. In the event that such a piece gets featured in an auction, the prices could jump to the next higher stage,” the source said.
“There are varying scenarios being experienced by the artist groups. Some of the highend contemporary artists are fast shooting up on the price front and could be heading toward the dizzy heights achieved by some modern masters. Contemporary artists seem to be enjoying the advantage of attracting a wide cross-section of buyers from the across the world. This includes domestic Indians, NRIs and mainstream foreigners in the West and Asian countries. In fact, the young contemporaries from India appear to taking after their Chinese counterparts, some of whom are scaling prices which are 10 or more times above the Indian levels,” an art market source told ET.
Investors may be also projecting that the younger generation harbours a longer period of creativity which would enable them to stock more works and look for further appreciation in prices. Analysts are of the view that a section of the bigger league contemporaries could finally catch up with the tallest price brackets of the modern masters.
“Some of the modern greats have reached astronomical price points and have entered a consolidation phase. In recent times, these names have not seen much growth in prices. The feeling is that these artists may take a while to set new benchmarks. Of course, there is scope for speculation on that score. The view also is that the auctions are not always seeing rare and top quality works by these masters. In the event that such a piece gets featured in an auction, the prices could jump to the next higher stage,” the source said.
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