Paperwork and sculptures find more takers

With the major auctions of Christie?s and Sotheby?s at New York in the offing, a hard look at blue-chip art is necessary. If one looks at the sales even of paper works of three artists ? VS Gaitonde, MF Husain and SH Raza ? one finds that the average per sq inch price for a Gaintonde work increased from Rs 559.35 to Rs 1,688.85, between 2001 and 2005. In the same period, paper works of Husain went up from Rs 297 per sq inch to Rs 3,204 per sq inch, while those of Raza went up from Rs 571.50 to Rs 7,029 per sq inch.

The works of Raza appreciated about 12 times over in this four-year-period, a very good return indeed. Husain?s works too appreciated at about the same rate, while those of Gaitonde appreciated at a little over three times. What do we read into this? First, looking at Husain and Raza, we find that the present mood of the market is buoyant enough, giving us returns no other form of investment gives in so short a time.

Secondly, there is not much of a difference between the price rise of non-figurative and figurative works. This is a change from the past as the prices of figurative works used to increase much faster than those of non-figurative ones. But the nature of the non-figurative in our contemporary art has something to do with it.

There was never a pitched battle between the figurative and the abstract in India as there was in the West. Since our non-figurative and symbolic art developed as an extension of and complementary to our figurative expression, the similarity in their worth as investment isn?t surprising.

The market today not only represents a situation where the price and worth of our art have come far closer together to determine the real value of works of art, but the prices of different genres are also beginning to show a certain uniformity. This is a good sign.

The figures I have quoted above are from Art Venture, a newsletter on contemporary Indian art investments. Today a number of such sources can be accessed easily enough, which means the prices are likely to find a rational and stable level on account of this new found transparency. So one does not expect sudden ups and downs in prices. And indeed, the figures represent a steep rise for Husain between 2001 and 2002, a relatively stable two-year-period between 2003 and 2004, with a sharper increase between 2004 and 2005. Raza, however, shows a steadier rise from 2001 to 2005, but there is only one steep rise in price, between 2004 and 2005. So one can conclude that Husain allows for quicker gains. The other important conclusion is that paper works too are finding new buyers. The market is no longer restricted to the sale of contemporary canvases alone.

Paper works are doing just as well and so are sculptures. Therefore, one can look out for pleasant surprises in the New York auctions as our contemporary art, which is not copycat art, is likely to do better than ever before. It is not spurts we are looking for but a steady blue-chip rise. And we are likely to see just that.

?(The writer is an art critic.)