(A Souza work from 1961)
(Scream by Edward Munch)
The story is from our art market booming years. A young art
collector invited me to her home. Security men at the gate looked at me with
suspicious eyes as I did not match anywhere with the glamour of their employer.
Armed by my proximity with that girl I fought back those hateful gazes and
entered that multi floor home where she showed me her collection of art. I was
admiring the collection with my curious pair of eyes and a mouth partly opened
for sipping a cool glass of fruit juice and remained so for my inexplicable
wonderment at the fabulous collection that she had on her walls. She led me
through floors after floors where I witnessed the works of Indian masters. The
guava juice in my glass tasted several times better when I stood before a Souza
nude ogling at the voluptuousness of her body (not of the collector).
Suddenly I felt something strange. A brush stroke was not
falling in place. A colour blotch has too much of thickness. A line was finding
its way out of its desired course. I looked at the signature. Then at the
signatures in all the paintings. They were all done by different people who had
carefully followed the style of the masters. Even their signatures resembled
the inimitable calligraphy of the masters. I turned at the beautiful art
collector who was standing next to me more amused by collection than anybody
else in the world. A few minutes before, I too was experiencing the same excitement.
Now shocked out of it by the fake signatures I decided to confront her. I asked
her why she collected all these ‘imitation’ classics. She told me that she
liked them. I queried her regarding the names of these artists. “I don’t care,”
said she with a smile dangling in her lips. “I commission them to do these and
they do,” she added. What do you do with these works? I wondered. “I live with
them and then sell them to other people who like masters’ works but really don’t
want to go through the rigour of actual collecting.”
Before I go into the analysis of this anecdote and explain
what makes art collecting so exciting with diversified collectors’ attitudes
let me recount one more anecdote; of course from the same boom times. A friend
took me to a mall like building in Mumbai. He told me that he wanted to assist
his friend’s parents to select a work of art. The building did not look like a
gallery but its three storeys had all kinds of art wares and interestingly the
building was brimming with people, and the sales were going in full steam. While
my friend’s friends’ parents rambled through their kind of art I decided to
take a self conducted tour through the display in the shop. The first floor was
full of Ganesha idols made out of all conceivable sizes, materials and mediums.
The second floor had all paintings; and many looked like copies of masters both
Indian and western. A couple came in and went through a series of nudes and
they were looking one for their bed room. Sexciting works, I told myself. They
finally selected one, a very seductive one three by two feet in size, and asked
for the prize to the assistant in a dapper suit. Rs.80,000/- sir, he said. The
couple looked at each other and they tallied the money with the kind of
pleasures that they are going derive with this painting in their bedroom wall, and
finally decided to go for it.
These two anecdotes taught me a lot about art collecting in
India. If you look at the percentage of art buying/collecting in India, one
could clearly say that the above mentioned kind of collecting overshadows the
collecting of ‘art’ from the galleries and other art vending agencies. This
also clearly tells us that art collection is not all about art investment. It
has got a lot of emotional values attached to it. And remember emotional values
are always relative and subjective. One cannot look down upon a person who goes
for a Souza look alike than an original Souza. He may be shelling out half the
amount of the original but what he holds with him is a sense of Souza; a sort
of high related to the idea of having a Souza. It obviously says that he is not
‘investing’ in Souza. He knows for sure that this cannot be passed off as Souza
in the secondary market as it is signed by someone else. Also he knows for sure
that the signed artist is not made big by anybody so that one day he could be
cashed in on just through his signature. So shall we say that this art
collector or the couple who bought a nude for Rs.80,000/- (while we all know
that a young contemporary art could be collected for half the amount happily)
are fools? My answer is a clear ‘NO’.
(One for the bedroom?)
When you invest emotional values with a work of art, money
becomes immaterial. Fundamentally there is no difference between a person who
pays a bomb for a Tyeb Mehta or an Edward Munch in an auction and the person
who buys a souza look alike as both the parties are driven by the same
emotional high. For both the parties having that work becomes more important at
that point of time than anything else. Millions of dollars/rupees/pounds spent
on it become absolutely nothing for them because they know that they are not
going to ‘off load’ them soon. While the one who buys a Souza look alike keeps
that work in his farmhouse or hotel or even in his living room, the one who
explode money into thin air for a Munch might not even wanting the world know
who he is. Perhaps, this work would go into a safe deposit locker and will be
permanently kept away from the public view. Art collecting is all about
passion, emotion and the high that it gives to one in secrecy and silence. It
is a spiritual experience.
However, when you invest in art, your emotional attachment
with a work of art gets thinner than a silk thread. It is strong and beautiful
but you could snap it by pulling hard on it. When you invest in art you are
sure that you are going to make money. So you study the art seriously and go by
the academic notions of it. Here what I mean by academy is the coterie that
develops values around a particular artist and his works. This becomes pure
business relationship; the gallery knows that it sells to a seller and the
seller knows that he sells it to another seller. It could reach to museums or a
good collector who is driven by emotions. That’s where the trajectory of a work
of art ends, which it had started at the studio of an artist. Some people buy
houses for sheer investment value and they sell them off when they feel they
can have profit out of it. But they don’t sell one building which they call it
home because they are emotionally attached to it. There are architects who make
buildings live in them for some time with a lot of passion and affection and
when they get the right client they sell it to him. Real art collectors could
be likened with these architects who make their homes, live in it and feel it
completely and find the right person to hand it over.
(Mr.Bean as Monalisa)
There is a strange phenomenon going on in Indian art scene. During
the boom time the art players did not create art collectors who invested
emotional value in art. Instead we developed a set of people who were keen to
invest and make profit. If I trace the paths of domestic investors’ arrival in
Indian contemporary art market, it would start somewhere in late 1990s. A new
rich class was formed thanks to the economic boom in online industry including
journalism and business out sourcing. This new rich class, especially the young
crowd, after satisfying their materialistic needs such as real estate and
vehicle, was asked to invest in art because the consultants told that that the
abstract value of art would always appreciate the price. The young investors
were asked to put money in paper works by young contemporaries, and on resale
they were asked to put the profit in canvases. This was how a new generation of
artists got established in the Indian art market who became celebrities during
the real boom years between 2006-08.
None of these investors were art lovers per se. They all
loved art because it brought them profit. They did not develop an emotional
relationship with art. Investment brought money, glamour, proximity with peer
group, high end circles and finally with artists. The perpetual parties and
carnivals gave them a kick and they enjoyed it to the hilt. Works of art found
their grave in the packaging crates itself. Open any warehouse in India, you
would find at least ten crates of contemporary art lying their unclaimed by
anybody. It happened because art was treated like share market bond papers. A
Chartered Accountant could handle your investment in share market. Nobody
carries his bonds and flaunts it. Art was only a reason for them. That’s why
when a young art dealer walks up to me and tells, look I want that work of art,
I want to live with it. Had I been given a revolver I would have shot her down at
that moment itself.
(Denzel Washington in Training Day)
Interestingly, in the whole process once again the artists
became victims. If you look at the scene, even during these grim days of
economic recession you see there are several artists who are not listed as ‘A,B,C’
category artists and who cherish no hope to reach anywhere near to the
A-listers, thrive in their creative works (though they choose to be suppliers
to certain demands. In that case who was not one during the boom years?) and
life because there are art collectors who want to buy look alike and live with
them peacefully. They thrive because there are people who would shell out a
lakh for a woman with wet clothes showing off her body contours to a pair of
horny couple on a bed. Nobody told the art collectors that there are artists
who are educated and do intelligent art. None told them that they could create
emotional attachment with the young artists and their works. None told them
that they could promote them consistently by becoming their permanent patrons.
United Art Fair is going to be a platform where we could
tell our Indian art collectors that look here are a variety of artists with
intelligent and diversified practices. Pick and choose them, trust in their art
and see them growing in the coming years. Invest in them if you want, but
primarily invest your emotions into the works of art that they create. Don’t go
by the rule books. If you are feeling to buy a Ganesha buy it, if you are
feeling to buy a nude painting buy it, if you want to buy a contemporary work
buy it but never feel that you are going to triple the profit in the next few
days. See the same artist in the coming years, see him/her growing and travel
with him/her and their works. You patrons, you have always been the pillars of
world culture. Without patrons no art had thrived in any history. Here is the
biggest opportunity for you to become the patrons of Indian visual art culture.
United Art Fair is not monopolized by ten galleries who imagine that they could
dictate the taste of 118 crore people in India. What a foolishness that could
be! United Art Fair is for you, dear patrons. If you have love for art, United
Art Fair is the right place. You feel like listening to your beloved sufficing
her life and relationship to you in three words: ‘I love you.’
4 comments:
You can become an art investor in a day but
it takes years of 'education' to develop an eye to become art collector. In western countries, art education begins at school level and art appreciation is taught in all universities. So by the time one finishes schooling, one has developed individual taste for art. Thus everyone tries to ascertain his/her identity through art, music, fashion etc.s/he collects.
I totally agree with you when you say art boom in India was misconceived by falls perception.
This boom instead of creating genuine collectors and connoisseurs it only created speculators of art.
Art education in any form be it fairs, public art projects, museum shows anything that will engage the masses will create a taste for art and thereby art collectors.
I feel nothing wrong with collectors who buy kitsch, it is also a kind of taste. Fact is it is more accessible to masses than contemporary art scene.
To create a taste for contemporary art practice we have to create more platforms to reach out to people. If it begins at younger age it is still better.
my experience on this starts from my house itself,after spending 5 years in art school continuously from starting, of course there are encounters with questions from parents, building friends and relatives who are curious to know what exactly is this that we cannot recognize the visuals or they just try hard but could not linkup.. its from them, till buyers in mall and some of outside know people.. Also i would like to start from small scale as far as its concern of letting know art to people in right direction by artist itself when encountered with questions -" what is this for e.g. apple stands for in your painting?" or like "i thought its like this but if u say its this way it may be or will be, oh! of course u know more then me" if this is the situation of viewers getting in, then its also a responsibility of a artist to respond them in a right way because there are the people who are interested of take into considerations your work but cannot mingle. there should be a play of both in this case artist as well to make stand his work with right recognition and also viewers or els. Also the problem for some of my art college friends is that they cannot properly speak on their work that makes a good exploration go from hand. So one should look on both side of coins for Indian contemporary art to take rightly, that should be from art school itself.
in 2005, art boom come it just blind boom, that its not true ppl buying anything just like war is coming like they are buy food, coming yr sure art boom will come but it with open eyes ..be ready and johny ML may one reason for it
* oops! not falls but false ;-)
also want to add when I say begin at young age I would strongly recommend syllabus for cultural studies at school level giving general history of art music theater, film, performance art etc., basically history of any cultural practice in India.
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