These are just a few of the entries in Kishore Singh‘s A-to-Z guide to the Indian art market issued in the waning days of 2009. Read all of them if you want to be prepared for 2010:
F N Souza surprised many with the prices he got in the recent Saffronart auction — or not. India’s artist with the most chutzpah is like a property with a view — never out of fashion.
India’s face of contemporary art, especially in the West, continued to remain Gupta, Subodh. You can criticise the cliché his utensils have become, but the artist has proved that he’s more than capable of outlasting the meltdown as well as the potentially embarrassing situation where collectors are demanding to know what to make of his fallen prices when they paid substantially more at a hype-inflated peak.
In or out of India, Husain, M F continues to make news and court controversy. Whether or not he makes it to the India Art Summit, collectors were still willing to pay top-rupee for the works of India’s most consistently selling artist.
The India Art Summit revived the fortunes of a sluggish art industry that was in danger of slipping into coma. There were no edgy works, no mega deals, yet its success caught galleries unaware, and they hastily put together shows to get collectors back to doing what they do best: spend on art.
Painting on the Wall (Business Standard)
