Painter, sculptor, architect, muralist, graphic artist and writer, all rolled in one, he is indeed a living legend. The zestful octogenarian continues to experiment with different mediums and to explore diverse themes. The crux of his creative philosophy and energy, as stated above, lies in constant experimentation.

According to him, an artist’s style, which becomes his identity, cannot be stretched beyond a certain degree. That is why he keeps on experimenting. No surprise, he was among the first artists from India to make paper collages. Revealing the secret of his passion to create multi-faceted art, he notes,

“When you’re consistently in creative activity, it fills you up with a zest to live on and on. Only when I think this creativity may end, that will be the end of myself, he adds, “I don’t give titles, I don’t give ideas, so that you have to find your own truth. It will liberate you.”

His new suite of paintings, drawings and sculptures were recently on view at Jehangir Art Galley, Mumbai. A constant yearning to strike a balance between tradition and modernity was evident in it. The hallmarks of his oeuvre - fragmented imagery, vibrant colors, and meticulous attention to detail - were amply visible. In a way, his subtle message of ‘evolve, sans letting your roots die’ came to the fore through it.

First and foremost, while collecting art, the changed context and connotations of the art market scenario need to be understood. It is believed that this is time for the real ‘investors’ to enter the fray as it gather momentum slowly after a prolonged lull.

An investor must get familiar with the young and upcoming artists, their themes and their career graph. New talent is being unearthed and you should keep track of the emerging names. Investing in art, or for that matter, any asset class demands meticulous research, information and analysis. An essay in the BBC NEWS underlines this fact by stating:

“The secret to investing in art is identifying where the market’s next trailblazers are likely to come, and knowing what art to pay attention to now.”

And this is where the judgment of what pieces and which artists will gain in value and stature over time comes into play. A little bit of background work definitely helps. It is important to visit the museums and galleries to get acquainted with the world of classic, contemporary and modern art.

You cannot become a collector simply by looking around and randomly picking artworks. Apart from research to spot the right work, the importance of Provenance, purchase documents and artist/ gallery validation needs to be emphasized here. Last but not the least, patience and discipline help a collector become successful in the long run.

A new thematic show entitled, ‘Of Gods and Mortals’ features India’s traditional art at the world-famous museum. It brings out how art forms a crucial aspect of daily life in India. An accompanying release mentions:

“The importance of sculpture, textiles, paintings and every other art form comprises two basic categories, one related to religious practices and the other to the expression of prestige and social position.”

The museum hosted ‘ReVisions’ show that looked at Indian artists skillfully engaging traditions. It comprised works by some of noteworthy Indian artists like Jogen Choudhury and Ravinder Reddy to suggest how thousands of years of rich history continues to inspire contemporary art practice in the country.

Indian artists draw upon popular local themes and proven techniques, even while maintaining a strong connection with the fast-evolving global art world. Susan Bean of The PEM museum in a recent interview revealed that they planned to showcase works from the renowned Herwitz collection in India.

A new installation of works from its collection of exquisite Indian art features pieces, representing the 1800’s to the current era. As is evident, PEM continues to provide a major thrust to contemporary Indian art.

The museum’s art collection is considered among the finest of its kind. It showcases an unrivaled and diverse spectrum of outstanding Asian/American art as well as architecture. Peabody, which is among the largest holders of Indian art in the West, including European countries, is specifically known for its rich collection of works ranging from colonial times to the present times, spanning almost 200 years. It boasts of masterpieces by Raza, Husain, Manjit Bawa, Rameshwar Broota, and Atul Dodiya among others, among others.

According to recent media reports, about 50 works of Indian art from the museum are slated to find their way into the art arena this year. The works to be showcased in India will be from the museum’s rich post-Independence collection.

The CEO and executive director of PEM, Dan Monroe, and the curator of its South Asian and Korean sections, Susan Bean were in India recently to speak on on the subject of ‘future of museums in India and beyond’. The discussions, organized by the Harmony Art Foundation, were pegged to the scheduled exhibition.

They during their visit to India met senior officials of the ministry of culture. They also visited National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), the National Museum, the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) as well as the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in Delhi to get a sense of how works are presented in India.

Arranged courtesy Forbes India magazine, its excerpts were published on the leading financial portal Moneycontrol. Giving a backgrounder to the popular phenomenon of art investment, the conversation with her mentioned:

“Some investors were influenced by the increasing interest in art, on the back of successful auctions and growing participation of top Indian artists in international exhibits so they did not want to be left out. For them unfortunately, art had already attained a high premium by then. The changed scenario is that there’s no desperate selling in the market. There are not many good works easily available to be bought at a throwaway price.”

The founder of Cymroza Art Gallery notes that sales have now picked up within a range of up to Rs. 5 lakh post correction. She stated: “Sales have slowly picked up within a price range of works under Rs.5 lakh.” This, she feels, is indeed a healthy trend, since the price levels could be pushed up slowly to Rs.10 lakh+ range. In fact, her broad investment idea is to start small. Her key suggestion to aspiring collectors is:

“Buy works of art you are prepared to live with. And returns will eventually come. Her word of advice to them is to buy a smaller canvas within their budget. She sums up to state:

“My view is that something as precious as art should not have been treated as a commodity to be traded in the market. Art is something personal in nature. You need to develop an interest in it and do so with a passion. Don’t just buy only from the point of view of how much it will appreciate in value. You have not to do it just to make money and surely not for a short-term.”

It focuses on the secrets of successful collecting, advocating a research-based approach. Penned by Nirmalya Kumar, professor of marketing and co-director, the Aditya Birla India Centre at LBS (London Business School), it calls for clarity on one’s objective or intent of collecting.

India on the global art market is still new phenomenon. A majority of Indian art buyers have probably been in the domain for not more than a decade or so. Obviously they are in the process of learning about art and collecting. In this context, a key advice is to concentrate on a chosen few artists vis-à-vis diversifying your portfolio. The expert notes:

“A collector is driven by passion than anything else. With Jamini Roy, quintessentially the Indian modern artist, I view myself as a custodian more than the owner of his works. The artist’s absorption of tradition and its subsequent transformation into the modern get demonstrated in the ‘widow’.

“The lines demonstrate the mastery of brush, the sophistication, and above all his genius and magic. Painted probably in the 1940s, it has what every art collector covets: rarity, quality, and content. The work is part of the country’s heritage, and the market value of the works is rather irrelevant.”

Another important aspect in collecting art is whether to ‘limit’ yourself so that your portfolio can become worthwhile. Elaborating on the aspect, the essay mentions:

“Unrelated paintings by different artists would be interesting, but not really unique. To make it meaningful, the collection must be more than the sum of its parts. Its uniqueness is decided by the quality of the core concept. Thus, collecting is more about imagination and vision than wealth.”

Based on his experience, a valuable piece of advice offered to aspiring collectors is: “If you want to buy art as an investment, do diversify the portfolio.”

The same was testified by the meltdown, which hit the global markets in 2008-09, prior to the boom witnessed by all asset classes including art. In keeping with the rise and fall, art too, has received extreme set of investor reactions, as the situation has swung from positive to negative and rosy to gloomy and now again slowly brightening up.

Moving away from these short-term reactions, several research-based studies have been conducted world over. Experts have carefully compared the long-term average financial returns of art as an asset class vis-à-vis more traditional investment tools.

Art does generate - if not fabulous - reasonable and stable returns over time, their findings suggest. Hence it will be worthwhile to reflect on the essential characteristics of art as an investment option in the context of empirical evidence comparing its long-term financial returns versus other traditional asset classes.

So what is the appropriate way to approach art investment? Remember what celebrated art collector Charles Saatchi has famously remarked? He has stated:

“I never think too much about the market. I don’t mind paying three or four times the market value of a work that I really want.”

In essence, if you buy art, do so essentially for love of it, and treasure your collection as a priceless piece of heritage for generations to come. Thus you will derive the maximum fulfillment and returns out of it.

The annual Spring Online Art Auction of Modern & Contemporary Indian Art from Saffronart has posted strong results.

The leading auction house hosted the auction in the second week of March. The sale comprised 100 lots of by 47 leading Indian artists with an aggregate estimate of $3.6-4.6 million. It included iconic works by some modern masters like FN Souza, SH Raza, Manjit Bawa, Akbar Padamsee and Ram Kumar, as well as contemporary artists such as Subodh Gupta, Anju Dodiya, TV Santhosh, Atul Dodiya and Shibu Natesan.

Seminal works included Raza’s ‘Prakriti Purush’ (2006) estimated at $180,000-220,000; Souza’s ‘Gothic Head’ (1957) at $150,000 - 200,000; Subodh Gupta’s ‘Doot’ (2003) estimated at $180,000 - 240,000; and Shibu Natesan’s ‘Take Me Where I Belong’ (2000) estimated at $55,600 - 66,700. Collectors from over 30 countries drove the competitive bidding activity.

Following are the highlights of the auction:

· 75% of lots on offer were sold.
· The lots sold totaled $ 4.6 Million.
· Nearly 60% of sold lots exceeded their high estimates.
· Akbar Padamsee’s 1953 portrait, Prophet (winning bid $ 278,875) went for over triple its higher estimate. Husain’s 1970s Untitled had a winning bid of over $ 400,000.
· Subodh Gupta’s ‘Doot’ sold for $ 391,000 as against a high estimate of $ 240,000.
· Souza’s ‘Decomposing Head’ price of $ 350,750 was much higher than its high estimate of $ 250,000. Same was the case with works by Raza, Laxma Goud and Jagdish Swaminathan.

Importantly, collectors showed keen interest in works of leading contemporary artists like Shibu Natesan, Sudarshan Shetty and Rajesh Ram.

In a clear indication of the fact that global art markets are on a recovery path, the world’s leading auction house Sotheby’s has posted strong results for the latest quarter and year ended December 31, 2009.

Its net was the second highest ever in its history largely due to a rise in the commission it charges on auction sales as well as a cost-cutting drive. According to the auction house, income over the quarter till December 31 was $73.6m, compared to a loss of $9.3m in the corresponding period last year.

The president & chief executive of Sotheby’s, Bill Ruprecht, termed that the good fourth quarter results a ‘remarkable achievement’. He added, “We are encouraged by our outstanding fourth quarter. It has produced our second highest fourth quarter net income. We are well poised to capitalize on an economic upturn and art market rebound as it occurs.”

In spite of a 7% fall in net auction sales, Sotheby’s registered a substantial improvement in the earnings for fourth quarter 2009over the prior year. Net income was $1.09 per share, in comparison to a net loss for the prior period. This improvement in profitability is attributed to a significant increase in operating revenues.

Another factor that positively impacted revenues was a $19.9 million reduction recorded in principal activities losses due to the substantial levels of last year’s auction guarantee losses as well as inventory write-downs.

It’s a compact and quirky collection of the human form depicted by mostly unknown artists for at least two millennia.

Taking a special note of the exhibit, prestigious UK publication Times writes:

“In India, traditionally artists painted either pantheons of gods or pictures of great rulers in a rigidly stylized manner, far more concerned with royal symbolism than a sense of personality or real life.

The exhibition though, is a very different world to that portrayed in the West over the time span from 1560 to 1860. It looks at how the early mingling of Eastern and Western traditions that took place in the Muslim courts of the Moguls was, in the 17th century, developed and adapted in all sorts of ways by the artists of the Hindu kingdoms the Moguls conquered.”

This show brings together an illustrative and eclectic selection of over 60 pieces that range from large dynastic portraits to intimate manuscript paintings, from iconic works to rare loans, and from elaborate designs to the most intimate sketches.

It offers a summary of portrait painting as it developed in the Mogul courts in the 16th century. It shows how closely observed depictions of character took precedence over symbolic attributes in the 18th century.

The exhibition reveals the influences of Christian images and points out its antecedents in Iranian manuscript traditions. Curiously, Indian artists were often anonymous in this era. One signs himself: “The work of the least slave in the court.” That tells the story…

‘The Indian Portrait’ continues at the National Portrait Gallery, London until June 20.