Abstract art is a money-spinner
The middle and younger level of artists are now pushing forward on the price front.
By Ashoke Nag, TNN |
KOLKATA: While masters like VS Gaitonde, SH Raza and J Swaminathan have shown the way in the field of abstract art, the market for this genre has been picking up in a more concerted way over the last couple of years. This clutch of artists, which is still a niche group, has started featuring in a broader manner at auctions and gallery exhibits. This is happening not only within the country, but also abroad. And it is likely that the younger generation of Indian abstract artists still have a good deal in store.
“Buyers of abstract have not only increased in India, but internationally too. The overseas buyers dot the US, Europe, Australia, Singapore, China, Japan and Mauritius, to mention a few locales. The number of abstract artists in India is still very limited. In that sense, this art form and the artists involved in producing these works enjoy a great deal of exclusivity. If one browses over catalogues of group shows in galleries, there would hardly be five to six abstract artists. The rest will embrace figurative and conceptual artists,” an art market source told ET.
With the prices of the master abstractionists having reached exorbitant levels, the middle and younger level of artists are now pushing forward on the price front. Bidders at auctions, who may have also set themselves a cutoff point as far as prices go, are also going for the second and third bracket of artists. “Although prices of the top league of artists have indeed reached extremely high levels, they are still quite a bit behind the tags commanded by the US and Chinese artists. Corporates are now gradually entering the auction scene. Once that expands more, prices should climb further,” the source said.
A sample of the performance of some of the young abstract artists is the Saffronart auction of contemporary works. Artists like Manish Pushkale, Harshvardana, Kishor Shinde and Sujata Bajaj have all crossed their pre-sale estimates and achieved price ranges of between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.
With Gaitonde, Raza and Swaminathan leading from the front, next in line of abstract artists are names like Prabhakar Kolte, Laxman Shrestha, Ambadas, Rajendra Dhawan and Ganesh Haloi. The third generation includes painters such as Akhilesh, Seema Ghurayya, Sujata Bajaj, Vanita Gupta, Sheetal Gattani and Manish Pushkale.
“After the initial price rise was triggered by the masters, the second and third rung have gone up by 400-500% in the last five to six years. Since the spread of abstract artists and this breed of painters are still confined to a few, one could be seeing just five to six quality abstract shows in India. But even this is quite encouraging, because we had found virtually none earlier. A show by Manish Pushkale at Mumbai’s Bodhi Art Gallery recently was a sellout. One is also witnessing exhibits overseas in the US, Europe, China, Japan and Australia,” the source said.
“Buyers of abstract have not only increased in India, but internationally too. The overseas buyers dot the US, Europe, Australia, Singapore, China, Japan and Mauritius, to mention a few locales. The number of abstract artists in India is still very limited. In that sense, this art form and the artists involved in producing these works enjoy a great deal of exclusivity. If one browses over catalogues of group shows in galleries, there would hardly be five to six abstract artists. The rest will embrace figurative and conceptual artists,” an art market source told ET.
With the prices of the master abstractionists having reached exorbitant levels, the middle and younger level of artists are now pushing forward on the price front. Bidders at auctions, who may have also set themselves a cutoff point as far as prices go, are also going for the second and third bracket of artists. “Although prices of the top league of artists have indeed reached extremely high levels, they are still quite a bit behind the tags commanded by the US and Chinese artists. Corporates are now gradually entering the auction scene. Once that expands more, prices should climb further,” the source said.
A sample of the performance of some of the young abstract artists is the Saffronart auction of contemporary works. Artists like Manish Pushkale, Harshvardana, Kishor Shinde and Sujata Bajaj have all crossed their pre-sale estimates and achieved price ranges of between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.
With Gaitonde, Raza and Swaminathan leading from the front, next in line of abstract artists are names like Prabhakar Kolte, Laxman Shrestha, Ambadas, Rajendra Dhawan and Ganesh Haloi. The third generation includes painters such as Akhilesh, Seema Ghurayya, Sujata Bajaj, Vanita Gupta, Sheetal Gattani and Manish Pushkale.
“After the initial price rise was triggered by the masters, the second and third rung have gone up by 400-500% in the last five to six years. Since the spread of abstract artists and this breed of painters are still confined to a few, one could be seeing just five to six quality abstract shows in India. But even this is quite encouraging, because we had found virtually none earlier. A show by Manish Pushkale at Mumbai’s Bodhi Art Gallery recently was a sellout. One is also witnessing exhibits overseas in the US, Europe, China, Japan and Australia,” the source said.
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