India-Art
New Delhi, Jan 20, 2014
The sixth
edition of the India Art Fair 2014 which opened to enthusiastic response on Jan
30 with a VIP and a Press preview has brought to the Indian national capital the
best of the international and national contemporary — across genres of
paintings, new media, sculptural installations, performances and conceptual
projects — with 3000 art works by at least 1,000 artists from over a dozen
countries in 90 booths at the sprawling NSIC Grounds in Okhla — an industrial
neighbourhood in the capital. The focus is on new waves in Indian contemporary
art movements and its role in the global contexts as viable aesthetic and
business proposition in an art market valued at nearly 250 million dollar. The showcase,
is accompanied by education sessions, discourses, book launches, trade
conclaves and cultural understanding initiatives that has drawn 30 eminent speakers
from spheres of art and culture, delegations from China – which is looking at
Indian art - collectors, artists and representatives from the premier
international art museums to acquire art works from country that has seen
steady enhancement in quality and business in the last 10 decade. The success
of the fair has brought on board a host of corporate sponsors – including leading
sponsor Yes Bank — in a new display of corporate-arts synergy, fusing business
and core aesthetics. The fair opened with a media briefing by the owners and stakeholders
at the venue
Some
snapshots from the India Art Fair
Absolut Anish
Kapoor
Leading
contemporary artist Anish Kapoor, known for avant garde and futuristic
sculptural and installation art unveiled his an exclusive artwork, “Absolut
Kapoor” - an abstract rendering of the bottle of the Absolute
Vodka, a leading liquor brand that uses art as its brand positioning in the
international market. The work is being shown for the first time. The dramatic
work that makes plays on the colour red in a light landscape, experiments with
space and illusion through two impressions of the bottle. He brings elements of
light, structure and negative-positive space notions to define the relationship
between the viewer and art. In one of the installations, the bottle appears
upside down and in the other head up.”Absolut has a long history of artists
from Andy Warhol to many of my great colleagues. The idea was to encapsulate
whatever it one does in a single moment… It is a strange notion, but one I felt
I could go in pursuit of,” Kapoor said. The artist said art as a visual
expression was “all about transformation”.”It is about taking a piece of metal
or a lump of clay, a bit of cement or whatever else and turning it into
something that isn’t. That fundamental transformation is indeed mysterious…Something
that is in way wondrous. And I feel that intimacy with the viewer is something
we have to hold on to,” Kapoor said.
Sotheby’s global
gesture in India
Leading British auction-house Sotheby’s, which is in New
Delhi to coincide with the India Art Fair 2014 unveiled for the first time in
India works by Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and David Hockney— a selected
panorama of works from is forthcoming London sale of contemporary arts —
alongside leading Indian modern masterpieces, the highlights of its New York
sale of its modern and contemporary South Asian art. The collection was opened
to the public at the heritage Imperial Hotel in the national capital for Asian collectors,
media and institutions – who have flocked to India for the India Art Fair. The preview opened with a lecture on global
art market by Lord Poltimore, deputy chairman, Sotheby’s Europe, James Sevier,
senior specialist, contemporary art. The
contemporary highlights at the Hotel Imperial include a rare and recently
rediscovered early David Hockney portrait (estimated £150,000-200,000),
an iconic Andy Warhol Dollar Sign from the collection of
Jade Jagger (Estimated £180,000-250,000), and a captivating work by leading
Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki (estimated £300,000-400,000). The highlights
on view from the modern and contemporary South Asian Art sale have come from a
number of distinguished American and European private collections. They include
Buffalo Among Flower Bed, an important landscape by Bhupen
Khakhar (Estimated $150,000-200,000), Maqbool Fida Husain’s dynamic
canvas Untitled (Three Horses) (Est. $100,000-150,000), and
Ram Kumar’s early abstract Untitled (Est. $80-120,000). The Andy Warhol Dollar Sign is one of his most iconic images. That is immediately
recognizable. The Dollar Signs serve as a playful reminder that famous works of
art are also valuable commodities – something of which Warhol was very aware.
By 1981, Warhol had become as famous as many of the celebrities he painted.
Mick Jagger (of Rolling Stones fame) and his wife Bianca were regular guests at
the Factory where Warhol worked. The artist recalled Jade with great fondness. His
work, dedicated to Jade on the reverse, is an affectionate gift from the father
of pop art to the daughter of a pop star. Sotheby’s currently holds the record for
an Andy Warhol work having achieved $105,445,000 (for his Silver Car Crash) in New
York, November 2013.
Yamini Mehta, Senior Director,
Sotheby’s International Head of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, London
and New York said the auction house was thrilled to bring a variety of artworks
to India which it felt would cause “real excitement in the market place”. “We believe
there is real hunger among Indian collectors to experience well-known
international contemporary artists and so we are delighted to be showing important
works by David Hockney, andy Warhol and Chinese master Zao Wou ki for the first
time. Along the contemporary pieces, we will be showcasing prime examples of
Indian Modernism that are new to the market”.
Performance and Projects
Two of the major spotlights at the
India Art Fair are Performance and Projects- both on the site and as collateral
events around the city— in an example of how is moving from the confines of
institutional space into living venues among people and opening direct dramatic
dialogues with viewers. The inaugural day of the fair began with a special performance
by Anindita Dutta, “Everything Ends and Everything” Matters, presented by
Gallery Latitude 28. In her performance,
Dutta begins to smear mud on the walls and surfaces on which her drawings and patterns
would be inscribed in a spiral manner. Once the surfaces are layered with mud,
she etches an original set of drawings on them. Once the inner surfaces are
covered with mud and the original drawings are inscribed, Dutta begins performance
with a group of National School of Drama Graduates - who interact against the
mud spirals on the surface in an exuberant manner to symbolize the flow of energy
and the aura we radiate in our daily lives. The performance leave new imprints
on the mud – overwriting the original drawings to state that nothing in his world
is static- events and things are constantly morphing, fluxing— and exchanging
energies in a confined walls of our existence. Dutta, who is based United
States, combines her extensive training in sculpture with performances. The
major projects at the fair include Riyas Komu’s Collectors’ Room ( set of boxed
images by three photographers), Path Finder by L.N. Tallur, Listen Up by Diana
Cambell Betancourt and Tim Goossens, Aura by Subodh Gupta and File Rooms by
Dayanita Singh. A project based contemporary art intervention INSERT 14 at the
Indira Gandhi Centre for Arts will address the impact of cutting edge contemporary
art practices on the country’s art and culture space.
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