Q&A: Tulika Kedia on Jogi Art

Source Blouin Art Info by Archana Khare Ghose
At the recently concluded Mountain Echoes Literature Festival in Thimpu, Bhutan, visitors at the main venue were greeted, among other things, by a display of a unique art form. That was Jogi Art, a new genre of art in the vast canon of Indian art and culture, yet powerful enough to start running on its own steam already. Originally a group of wandering minstrels in Rajasthan, who earned their livelihood by singing devotional songs and ballads, the Jogis tried their hand at drawing to support themselves. Thus emerged Jogi art, a form developed by Ganesh and Teju Jogi along with their six children over the last four decades. The genre of art not only quickly gained national recognition in the artistic circles for the sheer brilliance of its form, it is now set to go places with the patronage of Tulika Kedia.
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Is the Indian Modern Art Market Coming Back to Life?

Source Art Market Monitor by Marion Maneker
Saffronart’s strong sale last week led by a record price paid for Akbar Padmasee’s Greek Landscape which made $2.9m, well above the pre-sale estimate. And though Saffronart CEO Hugo Weihe has told the media that ““there is a huge demand for unseen works of modern artists,” many remain wary of the Indian Modern market after so many years of dormancy and the collapse of the Indian Contemporary market. In terms of Sotheby’s sales, over the last five years, Indian clients have purchased works at auction totalling $273 million (aggregate), and from 2014 to 2015 the number of bidders at auction increased by 7%. The trends across the art world, and paralleling within the Indian scene, is a look at underrepresented or undervalued modernists and masters who are getting a critical reappraisal in museum exhibitions and academic publications.
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Art Basel’s owner takes majority stake in India Art Fair

Source The Art Newspaper by Anny Shaw
The Swiss-based MCH Group, which owns the Art Basel franchise, announced today (12 September) that it has taken a majority stake in the India Art Fair. The group now owns 60.3%, the previous owner Angus Montgomery has 29.7% and Neha Kirpal, the fair’s founding director retains 10%. Kirpal, who established the fair in 2008, will still “play a key role” in its development, according to a statement. “MCH’s commitment to [the] region will help us develop the fair in coming years,” Kirpal says. The new ownership comes into effect ahead of the next edition of the fair in February 2017 although the “value of its engagement” will not be fully felt until 2018.
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Painter Akbar Padamsee’s ‘Greek Landscape’ sells for record Rs 19 crore at auction

Source The Indian Express
Contemporary Indian artist Akbar Padamsee set a new high at Saffronart’s auction with his work “Greek Landscape” going under the hammer for Rs 19.19 crore, breaking his earlier record. The 4.3 x 12 feet canvas, estimated at Rs 7-9 crore, more than doubled its upper estimate in the sale on Thursday evening. The winning bid surpassed the previous record set by Sotheby’s in 2011 for “Reclining Nude”, 1960. The auction also set other records for modern Indian art as Nasreen Mohamedi’s 1960 oil on canvas sold for a record Rs 2.4 crore. One of the earliest modern masters of India, Gaganendranath Tagore’s work “Ruben’s Sketch Book” also followed suit by selling for Rs 1.8 crore.
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Worcester Art Museum Hosts Talk on Contemporary Art of India on Sept. 15

Source India New England
The Worcester Art Museum, whose encyclopedic 37,500-piece collection covers 51 centuries of art, will host a talk on “The Figurative and the Narrative in Courtly and Contemporary Art of India” on Sept. 15 at 6:00 pm. The speaker is Vishakha Desai, special advisor for Global Affairs to the President of Columbia University and an Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs. The talk, which will be held at the Museum located at 55 Salisbury St. in Worcester, is organized under the Museum’s Master Series program.
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Inside an art classroom

Source Livemint by Dhamini Ratnam
The first day of Sotheby’s three-day course on International contemporary art—the famed Sotheby’s Institute of Art’s first foray into Mumbai—paid homage to Marcel Duchamp’s urinal. The early 20th century artist may have lived among the moderns, but his sensibility and response to the changing times and technology renders him the most significant artist of his century, and —though he’s no longer alive and making art—a contemporary artist. Kathleen Madden, art historian and faculty at the University of Columbia, took an intensive day-long session on international contemporary art, delving into artistic innovations of the past centuries, such as photography and film, and Western artists’ responses to them.
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All the art auctions you can look forward to in the upcoming weeks

Source Vogue India by Farah Siddiqui
Indian and international collectors seemingly strong appetite for acquiring premium works of art will be tested in the coming weeks, when more than 250 modern and contemporary artworks by India’s most celebrated artists go under the gavel in the latest auction season. The sale catalogues of Saffronart, Christie’s and Sotheby’s bring forth astounding, bold collections of historical significance, which are expected to fire up bidding frenzies at auctions, widely accepted as a barometer of the health of the art market.
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Stéphane Guillerme "L'Inde sous la peau"

Stéphane Guillerme en amoureux de l’Inde et du tatouage a travaillé plusieurs années pour ce livre, parcourant le pays en tous sens, nouant de multiples rencontres, photographiant sans relâche. Le tatouage en Inde est probablement millénaire, pratiqué par les premières tribus comme signature clanique, bien avant l’hindouisme. Il est aussi populaire, associé à une ferveur particulièrement visible dans les pèlerinages et fêtes religieuses. Le tatouage est enfin urbain, les jeunes, tout comme en occident, gravant à même leur peau leur sensibilité et leur goût artistique. Tatouage tribal, populaire ou urbain, les trois parties du livre proposent un ensemble de 250 photos inédites.
> campagne de pré-vente de l'ouvrage via Kisskissbankbank

Art Demystified: What is the Role of Non-Profits in the Art World?

Source Artnet News by Henri Neuendorf
Between commercial galleries, museums, and auction houses lies the arts non-profit. But in the profit-driven contemporary art world, what role does the arts non-profit play? Although every arts non-profit pursues different organizational goals, broadly speaking, non-profits fill the gaps left by the commercial and public sector to advocate issues such as art education, art activism, and promotion of unrepresented artists.
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‘Many Indias’ in one exhibition: An ode to indigenous art forms in the country

Source The Indian Express
Different genres that represent harmony within the diverse culture of India will all come together in an upcoming art exhibition that will showcase tribal forms like Gond, Kalamkari and Madhubani. Organised by Must Art Gallery and AK Gallerie, the week-long “Many Indias” art show will run at Visual Art Gallery from August 26 to August 31. “Indigenous tribal artists from all over India will showcase the language of 12 different genres of folk and tribal art of the land,” said curator Alka Pande. “The theoretical underpinnings of the writings of Ramachandra Guha, Arjun Appardurai and Dipesh Chakraborty, cultural historians like Jyotindra Jain, Sirish Rao, Gita Wolf and Ayyappa Paniker led me to conceive the idea of the show,” she added.
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Get set for PondyPHOTO fest starting tomorrow

Source The Hindu
Mark your calendars from August 27 to September 11. PondyPHOTO 2016, the second edition of the festival organised by the PondyArt Foundation, is back at the Old Port on the southern end of the boulevard. Apart from workshops, film screenings, community outreach initiatives and cultural performances including a rock concert, the fest will exhibit 400 large-format photographs this year. Kasha Vande, Festival Director, in a press release issued on Wednesday, noted that the festival is themed on ‘water’ and aims to build social awareness on the evolving relationship between water and human beings, economic development and climate change.
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Interior Design Russie

Source Interior Design Russie

Delhi confidential: Art Connoisseur

Source The Indian Express
While Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi’s animal rights activism is common knowledge, she also shares a passion for arts. Stacked in a corner of her office in Shastri Bhawan are more than three dozen framed Gond paintings. The minister has recently bought them from painters Bhajju Shyam and Dinesh Shyam, who were trained under renowned tribal artist Jangarh Singh Shyam. Maneka, who was Minister of State for Culture in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, is an admirer of Jangarh Singh and often buys and gifts the late artist’s paintings to people close to her.
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The search for future Modernists

Source Livemint by Elizabeth Kuruvilla
Christie’s decision to showcase contemporary Indian artists has been influenced in large part by the increasing interest being shown by Western museums in Indian artists. If Tate Modern has an ongoing retrospective of Bhupen Khakhar, a retrospective of Nasreen Mohamedi concluded at the Met Breur in New York this June. While the Guggenheim showed Gaitonde in 2014-15, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles exhibited Zarina in 2012, while The Art Institute of Chicago has shown Jitish Kallat and Nilima Sheikh in the past five years. “We felt this is the moment (to bring them in again),” says Klein. And especially since the auction was happening in New York. While Pakistani art does well in London, Klein points out that New York is where Indian art has many more serious buyers, both high quality trophy piece collectors as well as younger American collectors looking at the contemporaries, who look at South Asian art as growth markets. Having decided to hedge their bets with the contemporaries, Christie’s has been careful not to exaggerate the prices. The estimated prices for some works are considerably lower than the prices that the artists realized in auctions during the golden period.
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Bhupen Khakhar attaqué à la Tate : toute l’Inde en défense

Source Asialyst par Franck Barthélémy
Le 30 mai, Mark Hudson, qui a du voir quelques tableaux en avant-première sur son ordinateur, écrit pour le Telegraph un article mièvre qui décrit quelques tableaux, en avouant à demi-mot ne pas vraiment avoir les clés pour les lire. Le lendemain, Jonathan Jones, donne son avis : l’exposition est nulle. En quelques centaines de mots, il explique qu’il ne comprend pas comment les œuvres de Khakhar ont pu passer les portes de la Tate. Et bien sûr, il ne recommande pas l’exposition qu’il qualifie de mauvaise utilisation de l’espace du musée. Il lui donne 1 étoile sur 5. La discussion aurait très bien pu s’arrêter là. Après tout, qui lit les critiques d’art dans les grands quotidiens ? Celle-là, quelle qu’en soit sa teneur et sa nature, aurait très bien pu passer inaperçue. En Europe, sans aucun doute. En Inde ? La communauté artistique s’en offusque et se vexe. Dès l’article publié, les réactions (et les insultes) s’enchainent sur le site du Guardian. Salman Rushdie, ami de l’artiste, s’en mêle et conseille des lectures à Jonathan Jones.
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Singapour, le nouveau terrain de jeux de l’art contemporain

Source The Good Life par Natacha Wolinski
Singapour, au sortir de l’aéroport, est une forêt de grues. Partout se construisent les immeubles de verre et d’acier qui miroitent comme des Ray‐Ban anodisées. Ici se gagnent des hectares sur la mer, sur la forêt tropicale et sur le ciel, comme si la ville‐État de 647,8 km2 se piquait d’une soudaine expansion céleste. Singapour, îlot urbain situé à l’extrême sud de la péninsule de la Malaisie, s’épuise en rêves de grandeur. Elle a fait de son port le deuxième de la planète après celui de Shanghai. Elle a fait de son centre d’affaires la quatrième place financière du monde. Elle a fait de ses habitants les Suisses de l’Asie, avec un ratio de millionnaires (près de 1 million sur 5,4 millions d’habitants) qui ridiculise ceux de Hong Kong, du Qatar ou du Koweït. Devenue un hub pour le négoce et la finance planétaires, Singapour se projette déjà ailleurs et nourrit des visées autrement plus stratégiques. La ville se rêve désormais en plaque tournante des arts et de la culture pour toute l’Asie du Sud‐Est.
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After Christie’s Saffronart, DAG Modern takes auction route in India

Source The Financial Express by Kunal Doley
After Christie’s and Saffronart, another art house, DAG Modern, is taking the auction route in India. Clearly, art auctions are no more the preserve of the West. The trend continues. Last year, Saffronart, a premier auctioneer with deep Indian roots, appointed Hugo Weihe, a former international director of Asian art at Christie’s, as its new CEO. The development was seen as a rightful moment for Indian art to further shine on the global map and came just a couple of months before the auction house’s 15th-anniversary sale that totalled about R82.60 crore. Now, another art house, DAG Modern, is taking the auction route. Clearly, art auctions are no more the preserve of the West.
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Christie’s: Lifting Fallen Angels

Source Barrons by Richard C. Morais
It’s the bane of collectors. They go to sell a painting at auction, but the bids come in below the work’s reserve price, and it fails to sell. In art industry parlance, the work has been “burned,” and now it’s hard to unload, even at a steep ­discount. Artists can experience a similar kind of scorching. If faddish enthusiasm for an artist suddenly moves on to some other ephemera du jour, and the prices for his or her works tank, it’s virtually impossible for the artist to make a comeback. ­­­­No one wants to make a market in an artist who has ­already left a group of collectors holding the bag. Enter Deepanjana Klein, international head of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art at Christie’s, who is wading into this largely ignored universe of burned works and artists, trying to revive ­interest in the “fallen angels” of India’s contemporary art scene. Her experiment will take place at Christie’s South Asian Modern + Contemporary auction on Sept. 14.
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An Indian Summer at Artcurial

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Seven artists and authors who inspired India

Source News Nation
India is celebrating 70th year of Independence. Although India is much older, but in this post independence era, the new India has been going forward leaps and bounds on the shoulders of giants who have managed to inspire every Indian through the generations. To celebrate India’s 70th Independence Day, every day, we will bring you seven such people from a different sector. Today, Young @ 70: Seven artists and authors who inspired India.
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Fields of sight: Gauri Gill and Rajesh Vangad

Source Open democracy by Stuti Kakar
A project where urban life intersects with rural landscapes — the collaboration between photographer Gauri Gill and Warli artist Rajesh Vangad takes the audience to places beyond their imagination, on a visual trip away from cityscapes. Creating a dialogue between two people from different walks of life, this hybrid creation amalgamates photography and indigenous Warli painting.
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The Final Bow

Source The Indian Express by Pooja Pillai
“The decision to close was a result of deep reflection and contemplation during the two-week window between the diagnosis and death of my father to pancreatic cancer,” says Abhay Maskara, owner and curatorial director, adding, “Time was no longer just a useful construct that I took for granted but rather felt like an alarm clock with a ticking heart. I realised I was unable to commit the next 10 years to the gallery, in the same way that I committed the previous 10. My time needed to be reprioritized.”
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At the end of its time

Source DNA by Ornella D'Souza
"Seeing someone you love for the last 47 years fade away... We assume we have time. But we only have visibility of one thing: every breath in, we're alive, every breath out, we're no longer alive. I don't see myself doing what I did at 37, at 57. ," shares the grieving son, casting an occasional glance at his late father's portrait at the modest reception. "We've had 45 shows, each dramatically different. And that's enough."
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Q&A: Art Curator Dr. Alka Pande on Her Prolific Journey

Source Blouin Art Info by Bibhu Pattnaik
Responsible for curating several significant and perceptive exhibitions in India and abroad, and giving a name to some of the most upcoming and influential artists, photographers and sculptors, Alka Pande is currently engrossed as the Consultant Arts Advisor and Curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. She also has expertise in art advisory services on art procurement and investment.
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Raza's bindu fades into the night

Source The Times of India by Dileep Padgaonkarl
Though Sayed Haider Raza spent a greater part of his life - close to six decades - out of India, it is India that was his magnificent obsession in all his waking hours and indeed, as he often confessed, in the dreams that haunted him after he fell asleep. When he was in full flow at his homes in Paris and in Gorbio, a village in the south of France, one could not but marvel at the eclectic range of his references: a verse by Kabir, a psalm of Tukaram, lines from a Muktibodh poem, a stanza from the Rig Veda, a ballad sung by a tribe of Madhya Pradesh, a detail in an Ajanta fresco, a composition of Mir or Ghalib, a quote from the Holy Quran or the Bhagvad Gita or the Ramcharitmanas and so on.
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