The fourth edition of the India Art Fair closed last Sunday, leaving both success and disappointment in its wake. On the success side of the ledger: the event drew a huge number of art world luminaries — collectors and art professionals alike — over its four-and-a-half day run, and some 80,000 visitors passed through its halls. This was down on last year’s extraordinary 138,000, but impressive nonetheless given a new and remote location for the fair this year. But despite its success d’estime, the event was a disappointment in purely commercial terms.
Commerce was slow and a number of galleries, from high-profile international fly-ins to established local outfits, reported no sales at all. High-value transactions were so scarce that the same ones were cited over and over: a Bharti Kher sold for around $250,000 through Hauser & Wirth, Lisson moved a Marina Abramovic photograph for €70,000 and a Daniel Buren was sold by Galleria Continua for €55,000. In addition, a few local galleries reported good business, with Delhi galleries Latitude 28 and Seven Art Limited, for example, almost selling out their booths, albeit at relatively modest prices.
Expectations were high going into the Fair and theories about the commercial chill varied, with many placing the blame on timing. Late January certainly guarantees relatively mild and settled weather in Delhi, but the clash with both the World Economic Forum in Davos (where many Indian industrialists, and occasional collectors, were reportedly sojourning) and the Chinese New Year holiday was certainly unfortunate, even though the latter did nothing to deter prominent Indonesian Chinese collector Budi Tek. Other observers pointed to India’s economy, which is slowing after years of stellar growth.
But the real explanation may lie in something simpler: the market. After a boom in Indian contemporary art prices during the last decade which had many touting the country’s art scene as the Next Big Thing, the bubble burst some six months ago, and many international players left the field to a relatively small number of local collectors. Fortunately this group did show significant support at the fair, with Delhi-based Kiran Nadar for example, who collects both personally and for her private museum, buying a range of modern and contemporary Indian works across a range of galleries. It was notable too that the market for international art in India is still in its infancy, at least on the evidence of this edition of the fair.
The irrepressible director and founder of the fair, Neha Kirpal, remains upbeat. She stressed the “big step up in quality” in the event this year, praised the energy and engagement on display and pointed to the support shown by international art-world professionals for the event, in particular from museums like the Tate, which reportedly now plans to launch a dedicated acquisition committee for Indian art. Kirpal also highlighted what she saw as the increasing sophistication of the Indian market, with hitherto unregarded art forms such as video and installation receiving attention from local collectors. Kirpal summed up her aspiration for the Fair going forward as being to “grow the event qualitatively,” increasing its global reach while keeping its distinctive local character.
Below, ARTINFO brings you our impressions of the Best and the Worst of the India Art Fair 2012.
BEST
Feisty director Niha Kirpal, who in just four years has established the India Art Fair as a vital point of access to a rich local art scene, impressing international and local art professionals and collectors alike.
WORST
The complicated array of Indian taxes, from duties on imported works to a hefty 12 ½ percent tax on sales imposed in New Delhi, which acted as a significant brake on the market.
BEST
The rich local gallery scene which from venerable players like the Delhi Art Gallery to tyros like Experimenter of Calcutta contributes far more than would normally be expected of commercial operations to the development of the Indian art world.
WORST
The small clutch of local galleries who dented the otherwise high-level professionalism of the fair. The most egregious example? The booth jockey who interrupted my perusal of a painting to ask whether I was interested in buying pashminas at his cousin’s store instead.
BEST
The Fair’s venue, which featured generously sized tents that managed to absorb the 80,000-plus visitors over the course of the event without too much fuss and which were mesmerizingly decked out by local set designer Sumant Jayakrishnan with an optically engaging façade of multi-colored thread.
WORST
The Fair’s location, a characterless industrial zone one hour out of the center of the city by taxi — on a good day.
BEST
GALLERYSKE from Bangalore, which under the directorship of Sunitha Kumar Emmart pursues an invigorating program featuring some of India’s most fascinating artists, including the winner of this year’s Skoda Prize for Indian contemporary art, the eccentric and brilliant Navin Thomas.
BEST
The quality of discussion at the Fair, from the official Speaker’s Forum to the gallery tents, which gave a vivid sense of both the richness and the engagement of the Indian art scene.
WORST
The scary number of guns being toted by the various security personnel around the venue.
BEST
The gun being toted by one security guard who took this correspondent under his wing to make the long wait for a taxi on the darkening street outside the gates of the fair a little less scary.