Long life to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale!

Indians love numbers. 12/12/12 is the date of birth of the first Biennale of Contemporary Art in India. An event in many respects. First, it was designed and carried by two artists Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu, there is no curator, no concept, dictate, theme, just artists inviting other artists. Then, because it takes place in a magnificient region, Kerala of which is native Bose and Riyas (the dream: to spend a week in Cochin, walk along the cliffs of Varkala, enjoy Ayurvedic massages contemplating the sunset...). Finally, because it takes place in India, the country of all the possible where Contemporary Art is still seeking its place. An improbable Bienniale (due to electoral uncertainties, budget is still not closed) which gives a good place to the improvisation, interpretation and ultimately to the creation and encounters...
Already a success if we consider the record attendance of the first days and the media coverage. Rarely press coverage has been so important in India for a Contemporary Art event that is not linked solely to the art market!
This newsletter is dedicated to this happy event. Long life to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale!

Longue vie à la Kochi-Muziris Biennale !

Les Indiens aiment les chiffres. Le 12/12/12 est la date de naissance de la première biennale d'art contemporain en Inde. Un événement à plus d'un titre. D'abord, elle a été conçue et portée par deux artistes, Bose Krishnamachari et Riyas Komu, là, pas de curator, pas de concept, de dictat, de thème, juste des artistes invitant d'autres artistes. Ensuite, parce qu'elle a lieu dans une région magnifique, le Kerala dont sont originaires Bose et Riyas (le rêve : passer une semaine à Cochin, marcher le long des falaises de Varkala, profiter des massages ayurvédiques en contemplant le coucher de soleil… ). Enfin parce qu'elle a lieu en Inde, le pays de tous les possibles où l'art contemporain cherche encore sa place. Une biennale improbable (suite à des aléas électoraux son budget n'est toujours pas bouclé) laissant une belle part à l'improvisation, à l'interprétation et, au final, à la création et aux rencontres… Une réussite déjà si l'on considère la fréquentation record des premiers jours et les retombées médiatiques.
Rarement une couverture presse aura été si importante en Inde pour un événement d'art contemporain qui ne soit pas lié au seul marché de l'art !
Cette newsletter est dédiée à cet heureux événement. Longue vie à la Kochi-Muziris Biennale !

Vishwanadhan a Parisian in Kerala

Source KochiVibe photo Hervé Perdriolle
“In 1976, I collected sand from India’s coastal areas and made a panel of 17 squares, filling up the sand in each of them, one square for each place from where I gathered the sand,” Vishwanadhan said ahead of the art event’s inauguration. ‘Sand’ went on to become a major work for the 72-year-old artist, who left India when he was 28.“ Celebrated Malayalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan shot a film based on Vishwanadhan’s artwork. The 90-minute film, along with other films made by Viswanathan himself, will be screened at the Aspinwall House venue exhibiting the artist’s work.
> read more

Biennale’s here, but will it find takers in crowd?

Source The Hindu
As a raging debate over the Kochi-Muziris Biennale sweeps the State, a chunk of the city’s celebrities is blissfully unaware of the storm kicked up by the latest round of controversy about the use of public funds by the Kochi Biennale Foundation. Worse, a vast majority of them — mostly film personalities — is completely in the dark about the existence of the entity, which is working in the city for over a year now to organise a colossal global visual art event lasting three months from December 12. “Biennale! I’m sorry I’ve not heard that word before,” exclaimed a young high-flying playback singer when The Hindu asked her opinion on the contemporary art show. The response of half a dozen cine stars, a couple of writers, some socialites and a few prominent entrepreneurs to the query was more or less on similar lines. > read more

Première biennale indienne

Source AMA
La Kochi-Muziris Biennale se veut être une plateforme pour l’art contemporain en Inde, où l’on peut découvrir et apprendre. C’est pourquoi les organisateurs de la biennale ont pris le parti de rendre l’événement gratuit et à but non lucratif. Tout est axé sur le partage culturel et la découverte. La manifestation en elle-même se tient à Cochin et sur les îles alentour.
> lire plus

India's first arts biennale begins in Kochi

Source CNN by Daisy Carrington
"It's most likely due to a combination of a high standard of living, the political climate, tolerance for opposing ideology, and a long history of foreign visitors." Riyas Komu, one of the organisers for the festival, also gives credit to Kerala's political climate. "There's a long tradition of activism here, and there's always been a very vocal dialogue between political parties. For artists, the most important thing is that they have the capacity to be argumentative."
> read more

Kochi Biennale Photos

ROBERT MONTGOMERY'S NEW INSTALLATION, THE STRANGE NEW MUSIC OF THE CRYING SONGS OF THE PEOPLE WE LEFT BEHIND MIXING AS YOUR BOAT TOUCHES STONE HERE AS MY NEW BONES TOUCH YOUR BONES, CREATED FOR THE KOCHI-MUZIRIS BIENNALE

T. VENKANNA INSTALLATION AND PAINTINGS AT THE KOCHI BIENNALE

ERNESTO NETO

BEIJING BASED ARTIST SUN XUN GIVING FINAL TOUCHES TO HIS WORK.

ARTIST AKKITHAM NARAYANAN STANDS NEXT TO AN ART AT THE ASPINWALL

ARTIST SAKSHA JOSEPH GIVES FINAL TOUCHES TO HER PAINTINGS AT THE DURBAR HALL

KERALA CHIEF MINISTER OOMMEN CHANDY LOOKS ON AS CO-FOUNDERS, RIYAS KOMU (3RD R), BOSE KRISHNAMACHARI (3RD L) AND T. TRUSEE V SUNIL (C) LIGHT THE LAMP DURING THE INAUGURATION CEREMONY OF THE KOCHI-MUZIRIS BIENNALE 2012 AT PRADE GROUND IN KOCHI, KERALA.

AMITABH KUMAR BIENNALE WALL PAINTING

10,000 visitors at Kochi Biennale in first 3 days

Source Business Line
“Thursday alone recorded more than 3,000 footfalls. Going by the initial indication, we should be hitting the originally estimated eight lakh visitors by the end of the Biennale (on March 13 next year),” a key functionary with the Kochi Biennale foundation said.
> read more

India Debuts

Source Newsweek Magazine by Annie Paul
The former minister of culture, M. A. Baby, had indicated support but after elections, with a new party in power, neither the state nor the central government were willing to invest heavily in what seemed to them like an exorbitant venture with no immediate political benefits. The Kochi-Muziris Biennale may have gotten off to a shaky start but with the right backing and the lessons learned this time it promises to transform the landscape of art in India.
> read more

Like any good Indian wedding there is a sense of organised chaos.

Source BBC News by Rajini Vaidyanathan
"This is a bit like a wedding, and a family get together, and it means a lot to us," says artist Atul Dodiya as he runs around his exhibition, greeting people as they arrive, like an expectant groom ushering in guests. December is peak marriage season in India, a fitting time perhaps for the country to hold what is being seen as a life-affirming event for its contemporary art scene.
> read more

A Kochi Canvas

Source Outlook India by Mini Ittype
On Pepper House’s sea-facing wall in Fort Kochi, Kerala, a black and white dragonfish mural beckons seafarers, tourists and fishermen to join the cultural revelry. A glass in one fin and a cigarette dangling from the other, the debonair fish celebrates the arty reincarnation of the ancient cities of Kochi and Muziris. It’s this that the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012 is attempting to do—the eternal return—using the ancient narrative as a premise for contemporary art.
> read more

Kochi-Muziris Biennale hosts young artists

Source India Today by Jayant Sriram
In a quiet corner of a room of Aspinwall House, the major site for the Kochi Muziris Biennale, Delhi-based artist Rohini Devasher is exhibiting a video installation depicting 'imaginary lands' in Ladakh. The installation is an elaborate one, utilizing a number of flat screen TVs all showing videos from the artists visit to Hanle in Ladakh where the Indian institute of Astrophysics is located. The screens are set amongst drawing of constellation patterns and Devasher is currently working on a lighting arrangement. > read more

In Kerala, a Distinctly Indian Art Fair With International Appeal

Source India Ink by Minu Ittyipe
In a dank, musty loft at Moidu’s Heritage, an unused warehouse in Fort Kochi, Kerala, the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto stood precariously on a stool. He had only a few hours to get his work installed before the Kochi-Muziris Biennale would kick off, and things were not going well. Clad in a white dhoti and T-shirt, he stretched the ends of a piece of cotton fabric and hooked it onto nails on the wooden rafters. His frustration was palpable. The muggy weather and the lack of electricity in the building were hampering his progress. “My work is all about tension. It gets incorporated into my art,” he muttered.
> read more

Kochi gears up for the unique exhibition of contemporary art, Kochi Muziris Biennale

Source India Today by M. G. Radhakrishnan
Enjoying fried Kerala Karimeen (pearl fish) and rice at the YMCA's Spartan restaurant in Fort Kochi , Subodh Gupta looked visibly happy: "It is such a pleasant and simple meal, so typical of Kerala ," said the Bihar-born, Delhi-based Gupta who shook India's art world in 2008 when he became the first Indian contemporary artist to fetch Rs.5.1 crores for one of his untitled paintings. The starry eyed media angered him recently reporting he and his artist wife Bharti Kher bought a bunglow in Delhi's posh Sunder Nagar costing more than Rs.100 crore. > read more

Indian art market is making a strong comeback

Source MutualArt
The Indian art market is making a strong comeback. The inaugural edition of the largest contemporary art event ever to take place in India - the Kochi-Muziris Biennale - opens today, December 12th on the Western coast. Hoping to regenerate the region’s history and culture, this three-month-long art and music fest will exhibit artwork and site-specific installations in heritage buildings and disused structures in the old cities of Kochi and Muziri.
> read more

Beyond the noise and chaos of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale lies great art

Source Business Standard by Kishore Singh
Welcome to Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012, a three-month kick-off of contemporary art practice that many believed would be still-born, but which arrived in its own inimitable style, unique because at the inauguration and a few days later, works were still being installed, technology resuscitated, venues prepared or painted — but with none of the teeth-grinding anguish this might have induced in Delhi or Mumbai. Views ranged from “chaotic” and “unbelievable” to “Wow! nice”, clearly precluding a critical overview; artists oscillated between relief at the quality of work, karmic acceptance when systems failed, and peevishness that outstation visitors would be mostly gone in a day or two.
> read more

Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Source Manoramaonline
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy looks on as Co-Founders, Riyas Komu (3rd R), Bose Krishnamachari (3rd L) and T. Trusee V Sunil (C) light the lamp during the inauguration ceremony of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012 at Prade ground in Kochi, Kerala.
> slide Show

Christie's at the India Art Fair 2013

Source Christie's
"Each year I am surprised by the quality and variety of the exhibits – and there are always surprises! For those who follow or collect in this market, the fair offers an opportunity to see works by established and emerging artists, with all leading South Asian galleries represented." said Amin Jaffer, Christie's International Director Indian Art.
> read more

Cinquième édition de l’India Art Fair

Source Ama
L’India Art Fair, première foire d’art moderne et contemporain organisée en Inde, organise sa cinquième édition du 1er au 3 février 2013. L’India Art Fair est sans aucun doute une plateforme offrant une forte visibilité aux galeries par la présence de nombreux collectionneurs et actionnaires. De l’Argentine à l’Inde en passant par la Russie, la Turquie, ou encore Israël, la foire sera un lieu de diversité culturelle où l’art du monde entier entrera en contact.
> lire plus

Art festival to boost Kerala`s economy

Source Zeenews
"The history of recent biennales across the world proves this. A biennale is not only about demystifying contemporary art but also about forging a huge commercial engagement," said Shwetal Patel, executive officer at the Kochi Biennale Foundation, the organiser of the event.
> read more

Indian-Korean artist Tallur LN speaks about Indian art scene

Source India Today
'Witchcraft' and 'space crafts' are respected equally in our culture. Art and craft - both need activation. But they are not being given the importance they deserve. So we prefer borrowing. If we need our own, we need to grow. We have the seeds and only we can cultivate them. We have great artists, however, there are only a handful of galleries to support them. We really need galleries that are professional.
> lire plus

Indian Artist Looks to Bring Works to the Everyman

Source The New York Times by Gayatri Rangachari Shah
“I wasn’t interested in contemporary art, and I never thought I would become an artist,” said Asim Waqif, whose debut European solo show, “Bordel Monstre” (Monstrous Mess), opens at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris on Friday.
> read more

Première biennale d'art contemporain en Inde 12/12/12

Dis-moi à qui tu appartenais, je te dirai combien tu vaux

Source Le Monde par Roxana Azimi
Une oeuvre ne vaut pas le même prix entre toutes les mains. De fait, un pedigree prestigieux stimule l'appétit des collectionneurs, parfois jusqu'à la folie. " La provenance est rassurante, constate François de Ricqlès, président de Christie's France. Si elle fonctionne, c'est 30 % de valeur ajoutée, avec parfois des éclats extraordinaires. Cela donne une adrénaline et une confiance. "
> lire plus

Exhibitor List for India Art Fair 2013

Source Art Info by Rosalyn D'Mello
The fourth edition of the India Art Fair, held in January this year, boasted 91 exhibitors, of which 44 were foreign galleries. The fifth edition will host 106 galleries, 56 from across India, and 42 from 24 countries around the world. In addition to the general exhibition area and solo projects, this year too, the Fair, slated for February 1 to 3, will, like its previous edition, include a video lounge, an art bookstore, art projects and a Speaker’s Forum.
> read more

Indian Art World Mourns the Loss of Gallerist Kekoo Gandhy

Source Art Info by Rosalyn D'Mello
On the morning of November 10, the Indian art world steadily slipped into a collective state of mourning. Shireen Gandhy’s father had, as she feared, succumbed to the cancer. Gallerist Abhay Maskara was one of the first few to express his grief. “It’s a sad sad day. For me and all those who loved ‘papa’ Kekoo,” was his Facebook status update.
> read more

La fabuleuse histoire du rêve de la fourmi à miel

Source Le Monde par Véronique Mortaigne
L'exposition du Musée du quai Branly est la première manifestation d'envergure consacrée en France à l'art des Aborigènes. Elle présente deux cents oeuvres et soixante-dix objets, et retrace la naissance du courant Papunya Tula, apparu au début des années 1970 dans le désert d'Alice Spring (Territoire du Nord).
> lire plus

The Museum of Everything curates exhibition in an ex Catholic school

Source Art Daily
For this inaugural French exposition, The Museum of Everything curated an ex Catholic school in St Germain with five hundred artworks by contemporary and historic self-taught, visionary and non-traditional artists and reveals their private drawings, signs and carvings, handmade books, discovered bodies of work and environmental installations. For these artists there are no studios, no press junkets, no art fairs, no magazine spreads. Instead there are treasure troves of untrained work, discovered under rocks, in basements and attics, its creators often unaware their art would ever see the light of day.
> read more

Bouger les lignes

Source Le Nouvel Economiste par Roxana Azimi
Le coup d’envoi de la Chalet Society a été donné avec la collection du Museum of Everything, basé à Londres. Un ensemble fabuleux de plus de 500 œuvres, qui fait bouger les lignes de l’histoire de l’art, affole les boussoles des préjugés en mettant à l’honneur des créateurs marginaux et obsessionnels.
> lire plus

Queens Museum of Art to Host a Two-Day Symposium on Indian Modern and Contemporary Ar

Source Art Info by Satarupa Paul
The Queens Museum of Art (QMA) in New York will present an exhibition in 2014-15, tentatively titled “The Rising Phoenix: A Dialogue Between Modern and Contemporary Indian Art”. As a precursor to the show, the museum is presenting a two-day symposium this weekend titled “After Midnight: Indian Modern and Contemporary Art, 1947-1997” at New York University (NYU).
> read more

Air India banks on artwork to bolster corporate image

Source The Economic Times by Anindya Upadhyay
"We see enormous corporate value in our art collection and we plan to exhibit it not only in government-owned but private museums as well. We plan to do the same overseas too, as Indian modern art is in huge demand there," a senior AI executive told ET. > read more

The social entrepreneurs dilemma

Source Forbes by Morgan Hartley and Chris Walker
Swapnil was so moved by the family’s story that he quit his job, bought a motorcycle, and went trekking through North India’s jungles with his entire savings — 60 thousand rupees – to go find them. He spent half of his savings, 30,000 rupees, to relocate them to New Delhi, but was soon confronted with the question of how he could sustain them. That’s when we discovered the family of three was part of a rare talent of Madhubani painters.
> read more

Sol Lewit, un art conceptuel éphémère

Source Le Monde par Claire Guillot
L'Américain Sol LeWitt, de son vivant, concevait avec soin ses œuvres, simples ou sophistiquées, pleines de courbes ou de droites, confiant l'exécution à d'autres. Il a laissé derrière lui 1200 dessins muraux numérotés et soigneusement documentés. Aujourd'hui, chaque recréation est un défi et une aventure collaborative de longue haleine, qui réunit des artistes mandatés par l'Estate, ainsi que des volontaires venus d'écoles d'art voisines. Ensemble, ils mènent un travail qui tient de l'exégèse et de l'interprétation: il faut suivre les instructions à la lettre, mais aussi adapter le schéma aux lieux et à l'espace.
>lire plus

Kekoo Gandhy: Guru, mentor, patron, critic and more

Source Times of India by Meher Marfatia
Guru, mentor, aficionado, patron, inspiration, critic — Gandhy was diversely designated, defining the country's art scene through World War II, Independence, the Progressive Artists' Group and post-1960s civic struggles. Virtually all the talents of those years owe him their careers, from M F Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Ram Kumar and SH Raza to Bhupen Khakhar, Nalini Malani, Atul Dodiya and Jitish Kallat. Yet the benign, kurta-clad figure behind these prized discoveries modestly shrugged: "It's a matter of good fortune. I just happened to sow seeds and some fell on fertile ground."
> read more

The living tradition of Mithila paintings

Source Saffronart by Josheen Oberoi
Mithila paintings, sometimes referred to as Madhubani, originate in the region of Mithila from where they also derive their name (as is often the case in artistic traditions in India). This nomenclature is fitting since it is the geographical origin and medium of the artwork that unites this genre. Beyond that this tradition encompasses a diversity of aesthetic styles and content. As a living tradition, Mithila painting has had a dramatic trajectory over the last fifty years, and its evolution is crucial to understanding its value.
> read more

Is Keith Haring Undervalued?

Source Art Info by Rachel Corbett
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Keith Haring? A radiant baby refrigerator magnet? A barking dog tote bag? A few years before he died, in 1990, Haring began translating his cartoonish street idioms into mass-market tchotchkes at the “Pop Shops” he opened in New York and Tokyo. His populist vision made him one of the most iconic artists in American history, but it also meant exile from the “serious” art world for many years.
> read more

Who’s an outsider artist?

Source Times of India by Supriya Shama
Their art reflects unconventional ideas, elaborate fantasy worlds and, sometimes, extreme mental states. It is unexpected and uncooked. 'Outsider artists' quietly work outside the purview of mainstream art, with no formal training or degrees and, more importantly, they don't make work for galleries and museums and don't care much for movements going on in the 'art circles'. They are untutored artists, late bloomers, even loners or psychiatric patients at times, who are looking for a creative outlet. In an attempt to acquaint Indian art lovers better with this genre of art, self-taught artist Shubhdarshini Singh has put together an Outsider Art Fair, in Delhi. The term 'outsider art' was first coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture.
> read more

FIAC : A Multitude of Masterpieces in the City of Lights

Source Art Info
Coming hot on the heels of Frieze, Paris's FIAC gives it a run for its money, drawing A-list dealers and sharp-eyed collectors alike. This year, ARTINFO France has offered reports on sales from the main fair (here and here), an asssesment of its many satellite fairs (here), a peek at the pop-up outdoor sculpture garden the fair has brough to the city (here), and even a video walk-through (here). But for those who just want to get a taste of all the great art at FIAC in one place, we've also put together this photo gallery. Enjoy!
> To see pictures of the great art at FIAC 2012, click on the slideshow.

Source Time Out Delhi

> read more

Larry Gagosian pessimistic about Indian art market

Source Art Radar Journal
Famed gallerist Larry Gagosian recently sat down with Kelly Crow of The Wall Street Journal to discuss his international operations. As outlined in an article published on 11 October 2012, the dealer remains positive about the Chinese and Middle East art markets, but does not see potential for his business in India. "We have some Indian collectors who buy from us in London, but we’re not really selling to collectors in India. Maybe we’re not approaching it the right way, or maybe we don’t have the relationships. Usually when the business is there and the appetite for collecting is there, it trickles up. It’s not happening yet. India remains focused on its local art, and its museums aren’t showing international art often enough."
> read more

Simple Tales III

Source Chatterjee & Lal
The Simple Tales series functions as polemic and argues for a loosening of the self-imposed limits to what might be displayed in commercial galleries in India. Teetering, perhaps, on the chaotic these exhibitions privilege the connoisseur over the art historian. Ultimately, they argue that the chance encounter can be more satisfying as an art experience than the expected and homogenous. Simple Tales III will bring together works spanning more than 1500 years. The mediums used include bronze, wood, stone, paper and digital video. In the present edition, works will be included by contemporary artists such as Ashish Avikunthak, Hitesh Natalwala, Piyali Ghosh and Sahej Rahal.
> read more

L'Inde et l'« american dream »

Source Les Echos par Jacques Hubert-Rodier
Dans une comparaison avec les Etats-Unis de la fin du XIX e siècle et leur société diverse, laïque, matérialiste et fièrement démocratique, « The Economist » souligne que l'Inde a aujourd'hui « besoin de sa propre version du rêve américain ». Mais, pour ce faire, les hommes politiques en Inde doivent avoir une vision et la défendre. Il y a soixante-cinq ans, les dirigeants fondateurs de l'Inde avaient un « rêve admirable et exceptionnel » : créer une démocratie libérale. Et les Indiens d'aujourd'hui ont la liberté d'expression, de protester, de choisir leurs dirigeants, à la différence de pays comme la Chine, la Russie ou le Pakistan. Mais « la partie économique de leur vision a été un échec ». Ce qui manque à l'Inde c'est une nouvelle classe de dirigeants politiques, qui prennent des décisions permettant enfin aux déshérités d'émerger aussi de la pauvreté.
> lire plus

Baldessari Teaching a plant the alphabet

Prince Claus laureate Jivya Soma Mashe is renowned for his vivid representation of the Warli vision of nature and culture in equilibrium, and for highlighting the contemporary relevance of local forms of knowledge. SOIL, partially funded by the Prince Claus Fund is a unique double exhibition initiated by artist Jackie Sleper and the Indian art historian and curator Sushma K. Bahl.
> read more

Johnny-come-lately

Source Business Standard by Kishore Singh
The honest intention serves up a platform for artists looking for their due and collectors for value — but does it deliver on its promise? I was fortunate in having, for company, a keen collector with a very generous budget and a mandate to help identify any work (or works) that he would willingly buy — his contribution to emerging artists of exceptional talent. We teetered up aisles and down corridors, looked left and right, even managing to speak to a few artists — mysteriously, the artworks weren’t labelled — but, despairingly, failed to find anything to take back home.
> read more

The United Art Fair: First Impressions

Source Art Info
In a bizarre, inexplicable, and possibly unintentional twist, the most overwhelming democratic space in the two halls that comprise the United Art Fair is the VIP lounge.
> read more

Mithila painting exhibition at Fresno State

Source Fresno States News by Joan K. Sharma
The British colonial officer in Madhubani District, William G. Archer, “was stunned by the beauty of the paintings and similarities to the work of modern Western artists like Klee, Miró, and Picasso,” Sharma added, so he made black-and-white photographs that were the earliest-know images of the Mithila work. Archer later became the South Asia curator at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1977, American anthropologist Raymond Owens was conducting research in Madhubani and was similarly “stunned” by the Mithila paintings, now on paper, and shared some with fellow anthropologist David Szanton. They helped establish the Ethnic Arts Foundation, dedicated to sustaining the Mithila painting tradition.
> read more

Vernacular Moment: Rethinking Tribal Art

Source The Sunday Guardian by Julia Marchand
It seems that "tribal art" has somehow succumbed to a more appropriate word: vernacular art, a term that best describes the unique and rich diversity of the Indian contemporary art scene. "In claiming its diversity and hybridity as part of contemporary art, India not only acknowledges its rich pluralistic existence but also re-configures the definition of contemporary" (art historian and curator Yashodhara Dalmia.) Re-configuring the notion of contemporaneity in India goes hand-in-hand with its market, and the systematisation of vernacular production, circulation and valuation.
> read more

Kochi to turn into a canvas for world artists

Source The Hindu by S. Anandan
This December, the contemporary art world will move into the city for a three-month sojourn beginning ‘12/12/12’, the day the maiden Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) opens. India’s first biennale is billed to be a watershed in the port city’s evolution — from being a crucible of ancient cultures into an international hub of contemporary art.
> read more

11 milliardaires de plus vont donner la moitié de leur fortune

Source Metro
L'action philanthropique des plus riches américains se poursuit. Le duo de choc Bill Gates- Warren Buffet, qui ont lancé en 2010 l'opération "Giving Pledge" (promesse de dons) consistant à donner au moins la moitié de sa fortune à des œuvres caritatives, a convaincu onze milliardaires de plus. Au total, 92 fortunes ont pris cet engagement Après le réalisateur George Lucas, le fondateur de CNN Ted Turner, le maire de New York Michael Bloomberg, le fondateur de Facebook Mark Zuckerberg ou encore le fondateur d'eBay Pierre Omidyar, c'est au tour du directeur général de Netflix, Reed Hastings, du co-fondateur d'Intel, Gordon Moore, et de l'ex-patron canadien du géant des boissons alcoolisées Seagram, Charles Bronfman, de promettre de se délester d'une partie de leur fortune.
> lire plus

Asian art seeing a resurgence in global market

Source Daily News by Madhusree Chatterjee
The sale of the Asian Modern and Contemporary Art at Christie's for four days Sept 11-14 at the Rockfeller Centre in New York that mopped up $44,735,075 is being labelled by experts as a comeback for art from Asia and India. The Indian section was led by an untitled oil-on-canvas work by V.S. Gaitonde, which the master from the progressive contemporary school painted in 1969. It raked in $962,500. Jonathan Stone, the chairman and international head of Asian Art, says the auction reflected a world-wide demand for the greatest objects of Asian art.
> read more

The long road

Source The Hindu by Neha Mujumdar
Writer-artist Gieve Patel’s lifelong fascination with people of the Warli tribe began in his grandfather’s estate. Warli adivasis worked on the estate, and when Patel, as a young man in his 20s, would try to interact with them, he would be discouraged, because they were from another caste. In an early poem, Grandfather, he attempts to sort out this puzzle – why does his kindly grandfather discourage him to mix with the ‘others’?
> read more

They joined the fight

Source Business Standard by Gargi Gupta
Painter-writer J Swaminathan and writer-artist Richard Bartholomew were two key, and lively, figures of the Delhi art world of the 20th century. Their sons seek to rescue their legacy. One was an eminent painter who started out as a journalist and remained, through his career, a writer who penned incisive essays on aesthetic and cultural debates in left-wing journals in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. The other was the preeminent art critic and newspaper reviewer of those decades, and an artist who painted (early on) and (later) took beautiful, intuitive photographs of his family, his artist friends and life around him.
> read more

Christie's sale of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art achieves $7,060,625

Source The Economic Times
The successful sale can be attributed to works of exceptional quality, extraordinary history, and accessible estimates, which led to an enthusiastic response from clients throughout the entire sale. The modern art section reflected the continued strength and breadth of this collecting field and was led by Vasuedo S. Gaitonde's extremely rare Untitled, 1969, from the collection of Dr Bernard Peters, which achieved $962,500."
> read more

The art of misunderstanding

Source Financial Times by Griselda Murray Brown
Kher’s work has been shaped by her decision to stay in India – as has her attitude towards artwork collapsing and things not going to plan. “In India,” she says, “you have to give a bit and you have to go with it.” The chaos that characterises life in the country’s teeming cities, and the clamour of its 1.2bn voices, is expressed in Kher’s poignant piece “Sing to them that will listen”. Part of the Parasol Unit show, it’s a small Tibetan “singing bowl” filled with rice, each grain hand-inscribed with words from an Indian Sunday newspaper’s matrimonial column. Phrases such as “fair girl”, “B.Tech” and “caste no bar” speak of the selection process behind each potential match – but these careful messages are mostly obscured by others, leaving chance to create its own order.
> read more

Atul Dodiya chez Daniel Templon

Source Art Actuel
Atul Dodiya, né en 1959, vit et travaille à Mumbai. Fort d’une étonnante capacité à se réinventer, Atul Dodiya a investit un éventail complet de styles, se lançant dans des expérimentations toujours maîtrisées, depuis la peinture photo-réaliste de ses débuts jusqu’aux œuvres sur stores métalliques qui lui ont valu un succès international. Cette réflexion sur l’objet reflète son intérêt pour les aspirations de la classe moyenne indienne et l’impact de la globalisation sur ses traditions.
> lire plus