The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : No heart for art now Life in recession

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No heart for art now Life in recession

Deepika Arwind

Artwork sales have been hit by the economic slowdown

Playing safe: Corporate houses, which generally fund major art shows, are now crying off.

BANGALORE: Ravi Kumar Kashi, a noted city-based artist, was showing his paintings at the Korea International Art Fair — a consortium of 140 art galleries — when the markets in the U.S. collapsed, in September 2008. “Even the next day, we could feel the impact at the fair. There were not enough sales at the festival,” he says. Now, back in Bangalore after a tepid art show in Miami, he says there has been a definite slowdown in sales. “As an artist, I think I am also going to look at cutting costs in terms of travelling,” he says.

When the downturn began, most artists in the city were of the opinion that the situation would not cripple them as it had the others. While this may be true to some extent, Veena Shekhar, art critic and curator, says there has been a definite impact on artwork sales here. “I curated a show recently, and did not sell enough pieces,” she says.

For her, the recession seems to be an excuse with buyers. “I think the downturn is a way of putting off buying any art,” she says. In her experience, a lot of corporate people have also used the recession to avoid funding art shows. “I approached many of them but they all gave me the recession excuse,” she says. However, according to her, pricing is an important factor on the part of artists as well.

M.S. Murthy, an artist who has a studio on Kanakapura road, says his sales may have even come down by 70 per cent. “I had a display just before the meltdown, fortunately,” he says. Following October, he may have sold about 15 paintings, but that is still a lot less than he generally sells. But Mr. Murthy also has his own personal philosophy about the recession. “It should be a time which artists live through to create something more,” he says.

Even though art does not depend heavily on corporate funding, there is the inevitable question of public support. Galleries say that footfalls, or people who come to see shows, has not decreased. Mona Webber of Gallery Sumukha says the sale of paintings though is more like the “off season” situation, which for galleries in Bangalore is summertime. “The number of shows has not come down as the shows are planned for two years in advance,” she says. Paintings on the lower price range of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 15,000 still have customers, but the gallery prides itself on keeping collectables, which aren’t sought after as of now. “Even the number of NRIs who come into the city during December and January seems to have decreased this year,” she adds. Galleries such as Gallery G., however, say the impact of the meltdown has been quite superficial.

But mostly, it is young artists like Pavan Kumar, who after their first show here in Bangalore, find that the market is suddenly hostile. Now back in Vishakapatnam because the situation does not allow him to work with a high-profile gallery, Mr. Kumar, 27, says he is freelancing in Vishakapatnam, and is willing to continue doing so under any circumstances. “I think I will shift to Baroda in a few months,” he says, talking about an ideal environment for artists even at a time of recession.

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