Osian's Auction Catalogue Creative India Series 1 Bengal | December 2011

0 20 40 60 80 100 2011# 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 Global Public Auctions 2006 - 2011 Quantity & Value Relationship Top 12 Ranking artists Select 12 Leading Bengal Masters Other artists (approx. 1110) 68% 3% 29% 60% 3% 37% 62% 3% 35% 65% 3% 32% 70% 6% 24% 73% 3% 24% This is amost dangerous trendwhichcouldgathermomentum due to the absence of comprehensive documentation and archival systems available to the public. Yet for one who has built the most comprehensive archive (though regretfully still not publicly available), along with institutional systems of due diligence, authentication, valuation, conservation, on the subject as well as monitoring the daily handling of hundreds of artworks for over a decade, we know what it takes to tackle the problem. It is hoped the archive will finally be made public by early 2012 (after nearly 15 years of work) and so much of this ignorance will cease overnight. nonetheless there are still other more deceptive machinations which have recently entered the market of which we all need to be wary, as many important protocols are breaking down. Today whispers get transformed into murmurs very slyly, sometimes a result of deliberate competition between collectors for key works of art. each recognizes the insecurity and fear of the other regarding even the mention of ‘fake’ and thus rumors are planted, sometimes before a sale, putting off the other and allowing the deceiver to buy the work more cheaply. This impulse of one collector trying to put off another collector from making a purchase based on nothing more than gossip is now too common. Similarly, many dealers and gallery-owners who fail to purchase a desired artwork spread sly stories later when they see that same artwork being sold off by that entity. Sadly, even a few family heirs of artists have begun to spread false stories, creating myths regarding fakes thereby encashing upon the fee which they would like to extract for re-authentication of the work. even some ‘marginalized’ artists themselves fan the myth that their work is being faked so as not to feel left out of the league of those famous artists who really are. every major public sale sees a new story of deceit emerge. Of course, the issue of fakes does exist, and we all have faced the problem at some time or other, but solutions are also easy and straightforward once the knowledge and information is made public in a systematic and transparent manner. The separation of genuine mistakes and deliberate fraud is then easier to distinguish and those preying on the creation of controversy so as to attract media hype will then inevitably die a natural death. Stern legal action against unsubstantiated claims is another essential action which must now be taken forward if the system is to become more honest and accountable. Obviously artworks fromBengal have attracted the creamiest of criticism, rumor and nonsense, especially given many old masters painted various versions of their paintings, (e.g. Jamini Roy, Hemendranath Mazumdar, nandalal Bose, D.P. Roy Chowdhury, Rabindranath Tagore, among others). add to this the lack of credible financial and title documentation amid old collector families, and you have a recipe for avoidance. For many the easy (and deliberate) way out has been to ignore the modern art of Bengal, resulting in major distortions and artificial pricing of alternatives in the market (as competitive good-quality works lessen in supply) and a very unhealthy narrowing of focus in purchasing and collecting habits. (Please refer to graph 1) gRaPH 1 Comparison of Top 12 artists Sales (%) and the Select 12 Bengal Masters Osian’s has bravely (some would say stupidly) kept the flag flying for Bengal-based masters (Please refer to Table 2), as we have done for all those other pockets of Indian art which were seen as neither popular nor successful at some immature period of collector awareness. The Cholamandal group and many south India-based artists have similarly suffered the same discrimination by the market though for different reasons, as have virtually all artists apart from a handful of success stories, though of course this is still a vast improvement on the scene of the early 1990s. Top 12 Artists 12 Select Bengal Masters 1.Souza, Francis newton 7.Padamsee, akbar 1.Baij, Ramkinkar 7.Pyne, ganesh 2.Husain, Maqbool Fida 8.gaitonde,Vasudeo S. 2.Bose, nandalal 8.Roy Chowdhury, D.P. 3.Raza, Syed Haider 9.Swaminathan, Jagdish 3.Chittaprosad 9.Roy, Jamini 4.Mehta, Tyeb 10.Broota, Rameshwar 4.Hore, Somnath 10. Tagore, abanindranath 5.gupta, Subodh 11.Dodiya, atul 5.Karmakar, Prokash 11.Tagore, gaganendranath 6.Ramkumar 12.Bawa, Manjit 6. Mazumdar, Hemendranath 12.Tagore, Rabindranath Source: Osian’s eCOn Data Bank & archive [Complete global public auction database, June 1987 – november 2011]