'Bengaluru has tech capital, can capitalise it to enhance the art of buying art'
Leena Chethan, who is the director of Tangerine Art Space, feels that art is no longer for the wealthy.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
Agencies
Leena Chethan, who is the director of Tangerine Art Space, feels that art is no longer for the wealthy.
BENGALURU: The Face is the inaugural exhibition at the Art Café, a recently-launched space that brings together art and food appreciation to woo both millennials and art investors. The project is the brainchild of Bengaluru-based Tangerine Art Space and is located in the Brigade Gateway campus in Rajajinagar. The ongoing exhibition, curated by Giridhar Khasnis, brings together 19 artists who have explored the concepts of time and change through the medium of faces.
Leena Chethan, director, Tangerine Art Space, talks to ET about the exhibition and art trends in Bengaluru:
What is the idea behind The Face? Why is it the ideal inaugural exhibition for a space like the Art Cafe? The Face is a very generic concept, easy to understand. It is a topic that artists of every genre and generation have painted with varying intensity and mediums. For the inaugural show in an unconventional space like the Art Cafe, we found 42 different variants of artworks around this theme; in ceramic, fibreglass, stone, metal, on canvas and paper. Some were huge, some tiny, in metallic finish, watercolours, soft pastels, in traditional style or contemporary avatars. The ongoing exhibition, curated by Giridhar Khasnis, brings together 19 artists who have explored the concepts of time and change through the medium of faces.
How differently has each of the participating artists approached this concept? The concept of a face lends itself to interpretation easily and is widely practiced. In some instances, artists have primarily or exclusively worked on the human face. For instance, Ravinder Reddy's gilded gold bright, shining faces of women with an elaborate hairdo, nose-pin, earrings make them iconic works of art that have found resonance in the far-east and west. Similarly, The Face or The Head is an oft-repeated feature in the art of Himmat Shah, who has created works repeatedly in ceramic and bronze. Parag Sonarghare's stark depiction of everyday faces we encounter - of men we likely pass on the street without as much as a second glance, with faces lined with age & experience, wilted with the vagaries of life, pain & struggle - make us stop and gasp.
How have the artworks depicted the concept of change and time through faces in the exhibition? A picture is poetry without words. Artworks in the exhibition depict faces from different eras and backgrounds. Just as hearing swatches of an old song would take you back in time, the works from an old era make you stop in your track & wonder what life would've been like back in the day. The Face is the inaugural exhibition at the Art Café, a recently-launched space that brings together art and food appreciation to woo both millennials and art investors. What are the emerging trends in Bengaluru's art space and market? Is there a change in the manner in which people buy or appreciate art? We live in interesting times. Thanks to the proliferation of technology, we've seen a sea change in the number of travellers. Youngsters today are more well-travelled than previous generations. And travel opens our minds and our outlook. So while earlier the perception was that art is for the wealthy, it is now changing. More youngsters are taking serious interest in art. To begin collecting, one just needs an eye for art that speaks to you, resonates with you and you feel drawn to.
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Art appreciation is just like appreciation for any other finer things in life. The most important feature that sets apart any house today would be the art work on its walls. It is not everyone's cup of tea to understand or invest in high art, but everyone is influenced by a good work. From a Rangoli to a Raza, all art inspires.
What sets Bengaluru's art scene apart from other cities in India? Bengaluru is home to the finest technology and startup minds. Sadly, there are not many galleries that are doing enough to pique the interest or allow a choice to prospective buyers here. It is a collective responsibility of art galleries, media, educational institutions, museums to build awareness & to show work that can become part of a personable space.
Delhi and Mumbai being the national & financial capitals have the most amount of dispensable income, and hence, the maximum number of galleries. It would seriously benefit us here in Bengaluru if we could have events bringing many galleries and collectors under one roof.
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In the age of easily-accessible and more affordable art prints, how much is an original painting appreciated or preferred? Most often, prints are a great way to start buying art, but it is good to eventually move up adding real works of art.
Scribbles, Scratches And Other Abstract Pieces Of Art That Made Millions
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Who says a scribble or a scratch is worthless? Check out these abstracts which sold for a fortune thanks to their minimalistic allure.
Who says a scribble or a scratch is worthless? Check out these abstracts which sold for a fortune thanks to their minimalistic allure.
Cost: $70.5 million
What seems like chalk scribbles on a slate is actually an oil-based house paint and crayon artwork on canvas by Edwin Parker ‘Cy’ Twombly Jr, which fetched a record price for the artist in Christie’s 2014 sale. Part of Twombly’s ‘blackboard’ paintings, the 1970 artwork is inspired by his stint in Pentagon as a cryptologist. What’s interesting is the way he produced this artwork. He sat on the shoulders of a friend, who kept on walking along the length of the canvas, enabling Twombly to create fluid lines. The painting’s then owner, Audrey Irmas, a philanthropist, parted with the painting to raise funds for her foundation for social justice. Interestingly, Irmas bought the painting for $3.85 million in 1990.
(Image: www.christies.com)
Cost: $70.5 million
What seems like chalk scribbles on a slate is actually an oil-based house paint and crayon artwork on canvas by Edwin Parker ‘Cy’ Twombly Jr, which fetched a record price for the..
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Cost: $1.65 million
Once part of the Robert and Jean Shoenberg collection, this 1961 artwork came into the market at Christie’s 2008 sale. Kelly was a camouflage artist during his stint in the army in the 1940s. He was a part of the unit known as ‘the Ghost army’ comprising artists and designers who painted objects that would misdirect enemy soldiers.
(Image: www.christies.com)
Cost: $1.65 million
Once part of the Robert and Jean Shoenberg collection, this 1961 artwork came into the market at Christie’s 2008 sale. Kelly was a camouflage artist during his stint in the army ..
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Cost: $86.88 million (including buyer’s premium)
The vibrant orange, red and yellow coloured rectangles was part of art collector David Pincus’s estate and was brought to the market by Christie’s in 2012 where its sale set the record for post war/ contemporary art at the time. Rothko’s 1961 work was in Pincus’s possession for four-and-a-half decades. The final bid was double the highest estimate of the artwork.
(Image: www.markrothko.org)
Cost: $86.88 million (including buyer’s premium)
The vibrant orange, red and yellow coloured rectangles was part of art collector David Pincus’s estate and was brought to the market by Christie’s i..
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Cost: $16.2 million
The 24 sharp vertical tears on a crimson, water-painted seven- foot wide canvas was contested for about a minute and 30 seconds during Sotheby’s 2015 auction. Yet, the painting was sold below the low presale estimate of $15 million. Turns out, Fontana was inspired to paint this artwork watching Red Desert, a 1964 movie created by Michelangelo Antonioni, which won the Golden Lion in that year’s Venice Film Festival. In fact, the inscription on the back of the painting, in Italian, reads, “I returned yesterday from Venice, I saw Antonioni’s film!!!”
(Image: www.sothebys.com)
Cost: $16.2 million
The 24 sharp vertical tears on a crimson, water-painted seven- foot wide canvas was contested for about a minute and 30 seconds during Sotheby’s 2015 auction. Yet, the painting ..
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Cost: $84.16 million
Newman’s 1961 stark black palette on a pale canvas was part of Christie’s post-war and contemporary evening sale auction in 2014. Newman started dabbling in abstract expression while he was mourning the death of his younger brother George. About the painter’s black fixation, art expert Thomas Hess recalled Newman saying, “When an artist wants to change, when he wants to invent, he goes to black as it is a way of clearing the table-of getting to new ideas.” The painting is in the possession of a private collector now. Its previous owner had the painting for nearly 40 years.
(Image: www.christies.com)
Cost: $84.16 million
Newman’s 1961 stark black palette on a pale canvas was part of Christie’s post-war and contemporary evening sale auction in 2014. Newman started dabbling in abstract expression..
