Day three of the India Art Fair was about to end. One noticed the crowd surge excitedly, as it tried to catch a glimpse of a silicon sculpture by Sam Jinks. Or the best of MF Husain. But gallery owners were sombre, owing to “limited sales.”
The report we received, is that even on the first day, few transactions had happened. And that over the next two days, Indian and international galleries received many queries, but trade generally remained dull.
“There are enquiries about art works. But if we talk of actual sales, nothing major has materialised. Business is low and people are wary when it comes to investing in art. There is focus on quality of works this time. What is good, is catching the attention of collectors and buyers. But business is low, compared to last year,” said Tunty Chauhan from Threshold Gallery in Delhi.
Another Delhi gallery Latitude 28 put Dilip Chobisa’s works in one booths. The lot sold out. Despite this, the spokesperson informed, “business still can’t be termed well.”
One reason might be most galleries invested huge amounts in stalls and for joining the fair.
To some, all arrangements for the event cost them over a lakh.
With money in mind, galleries expected to recover costs. This did not happen for all.
“The works that we got here were the best. We have given out many price quotations to visitors here. So we can hope that after the fair ends, collectors might get back,” said a spokesperson from Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna.
After two years of economic slowdown, it was hoped the fair would bring momentum to the art scene and pull galleries out of doldrums. This hasn’t happened. Not everyone is negative though. Sunaina Anand from Art Alive Gallery, chirped, “At least people know what to buy. We can wait for another year for business to flourish. Even if that hasn’t been the case, there is hope. Last year galleries almost sold everything.”
Some like Shrine Empire Gallery, and Mauger Modern Art gallery from London were lucky. Shrine sold the entire collection by US-based artist Samanta Mehta Batra and Gurgaon-based Suchitra Gehlot. Mauger also did steady business.
Richard Mauger, director of the gallery informed, “Most of our 3D photos were picked by collectors in New York and Mumbai.”
Some foreign and private collectors looked at Indian art seriously for the first time. But even that, it seems, failed to add zing to business at the fair. Sales of Indian contemporary art lagged behind figures reported in 2008. “We cannot say the market is stable. But we hope for good business,” concluded Sangeeta Juneja, owner of Artchill Gallery.
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