Cutting across nationalities in the Capital

KOLKATA: London seems to have been quite bowled over by an Indian art show. Delhi’s Art Alive gallery had recently teamed up with its UK associate S A Fine Arts to put up an exhibit of six top artists in London. The event, which saw a preview at the Victoria & Albert Museum and then moved to the Air Gallery, was co-sponsored by French wealth management firm Groupe Opportunite and a UK interiors outfit Lifestyle.

“This is the first Indian art group show to be previewed at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Two years back, there was a solo exhibit of MF Husain’s paintings. It was probably one of the best attended shows at the V&A.

We were not only showing art, but facilitating a free-flowing interaction with the artists. The preview was attended by around 450 visitors,” Ms Sunaina Anand, director of Art Alive, said. The show featured works of artists like Jogen Chowdhury, Paresh Maity, Anjolie Ela Menon, Yusuf Arakkal and Arpana Caur.

On the price front, each Anjolie Ela Menon paintings were picked up in the region of £26,000, with Jogen Chowdhury fetching a similar tag. Paresh Maity touched £17,000, Prabhakar Kolte £13,000, Yusuf Arakkal £14,000 and Arpana Caur £12,000. Overall, large and medium-sized paintings hovered in the £4,500-27,000 range.

In all, there were around 30 paintings figuring in the exhibition, thematically encased as Tatva. According to Ms Anand, the artworks touched, in their “distinct” way, on the different elements of the universe.

From the financial standpoint, “The response to the show was even more encouraging given the fact that London has been seeing quite a few Indian art shows. This exhibit showed that the audience in London responds to high-end works.

In fact, the idea of staging this show was to internationalise a range of quality paintings. The audience comprised a mix of NRIs, wealthy Asians and local British collectors. The local buyers who came to the show usually patronise European and Victorian art,” Ms Anand said.

She said the co-sponsors, Groupe Opportunite and Lifestyle had been associated with international art but never with Indian art. “It’s interesting, therefore, that they are moving into backing Indian art.

S A Fine Arts is now in the process of tying up with some galleries in Paris and Geneva for future shows with Art Alive. The mission is to take Indian art to European audiences, cutting across nationalities,” Ms Anand said.