Osian's Auction Catalogue The Masterpieces and Museum Quality Series | October 2004

OSIAN ’ s–CONNOISSEURS OF ART 10 Recently the globally mobile have begun to take an even greater interest in Indian Contemporary Art. Economic appreciation continues to be the trigger for this awareness. Yet the constant build up of the knowledge-bases is what underpins any sustainable growth, for art is knowledge – the knowledge of aesthetics and its history. The nascent Indian art market is the purest form of the knowledge industry in the making, with the software sector its contemporary precursor. However, the deep links between this knowledge and the pricing of art is still far from being understood in India. Placing credible material value on the intangible is still something she has to master. Recent reports of Husain pre-selling 100/125 paintings for Rs.100 crores ($20 mn) which still reside in his mind, to a businessman who does not know the A of Art (self-proclaimed), does not seemingly lend credibility to the process of pricing, but the whole episode raises the excitement level & renewed questions in all minds. However, the key question is how much knowledge & wealth can be created for the nation from artistic creativity, which is then shared & redistributed into serving various parts of the economy; and what will be the new ‘value’ system which will emerge from this deeper respect towards artistic creativity and its way of life. Will creativity be able to sooner or later discipline economics to behave with greater responsibility? Will the growing interest in artistic creativity also lead to a greater spirit of Indian entrepreneurship, so taking new risks and breaking old barriers which normally certain traditions would hold back? Will such create the clear base for a uniquely prioritised alternative developmental model for India, which the western & S.E. Asian nations have overlooked. These are key infrastructure-building & developmental issues. However, let alone cultural infrastructure, India has failed to build economic infrastructure, so I feel most of these concerns will not interest our people today. Then again in 1997 few wanted to buy Souzas & Tyebs for even one lac ($2,000), today there is a queue waiting to pay forty times the price. It is too late for most collectors. Having introduced more than 70% of all Indian contemporary artists to the global auction markets, I know the deep short-sightedness of money when it comes to understanding art and aesthetics. There is little vision in the individual, it is a bandwagon. We cannot afford to have the same lack of vision in the collective as regards our artistic and cultural heritage, especially that part which has still not captured the financial imagination. Here the nation must not be too late in losing its chance to become a true world leader and re- builder of a great civilisation. This respectability will emerge only if our artistic and cultural heritage plays a pivotal role in the developmental policies of India. For this situation to emerge there are still many layers of infrastructure-building which have to be put into place. This is not the place to talk about the uniqueness of India’s artistic heritage. It is a brief note to try and make those with responsibility recognise that the past corruption and ignorance of the system has led to India losing most of her heritage to the outside world, but even more important than that, it has led to our people not respecting ourselves, not valuing our heritage, not grasping our larger identity, and not taking on our greater duty to humankind, with the confidence and leadership an India demands. Idealism and its material transformation has not moved in tandem, we are still a ‘potential’, and pivotal to this unrealised story is the inability for creativity and finance not to have understood the role & duty of each other. Hence archaic patronage structures which are inefficient and corrupt, rule the day, forcing merit, quality and self- sufficiency to be compromised at every temptation. Changing this economic paradigm for the arts & culture is thus pivotal, hence the need to nurture the concept of ‘art as investment’, which will lead to greater independence and integration of the arts into the wider socio- economic-political system. There is no option to taking this creative risk if idealism is to reassert its material livingness. In financial terms, Indian contemporary art is but the tip of the iceberg. When one started building the art infrastructure in 1997 the open market was barely Rs.6 crore ($1.2 mn.), today it is approx. Rs.175-200 crore ($35-40 mn.) at both primary & secondary levels (ignoring the Husain pre-sell). Yet the institutional processes have barely taken root; the sector is at ‘take-off’ stage. Within ten years, the contemporary arts market (the fine & popular arts) will exceed Rs.2,500 crore ($500 mn.), and if the government truly understands the need to create a vibrant domestic antiquities market, then the total domestic art market (contemporary plus antiquity) by 2011, will exceed Rs.40,000 crore ($8,000 mn.). Only one who is building at the roots, on many simultaneous levels, understands the inevitability of this process. Further, the tax potential for the government will be enough to fund many schools, universities, museums and other significant cultural institutions of India such as the ASI, transforming them into vibrant global institutions, if involved from inception. However, the obstacles to opening up the domestic market are many. Firstly, the vested interests involved in smuggling and keeping the artefacts underground in the black economy are very strong. Smuggling is rooted in the existence of the black economy. This cash economy depends on keeping things suppressed, hidden and non- accountable. Various nexus exist which since the 1972 Antiquities & Treasures Act have become corroded, deeply entangled within legal ambiguity, now unable to be amended, requiring a complete overhaul. Hence the existing system fears transparency more than anything else. Unfortunately, the archaic legal framework has been misused to implicitly support the destruction of the domestic antiquity market, hence ironically encouraging smuggling. Today, though essential in a certain context, the legal framework is lacking in knowledge of the subject it legislates, and hence it is finding The contemporary tip of the iceberg Neville Tuli