Matters of art and money
RANA SIDDIQUI
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There is a sudden spurt in art activity. More galleries are opening, there is education for the common man to appreciate art.
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FACES OF ART? Poonam Sarin and Aarti Sarin from Ati Art gallery.
There was a time when people would flaunt their ignorance about Indian art and artists and still get away with it. The reason? Art was the last thing that would win them an enviable position in our society and fetch them monetary benefits too. Real estate and shares were what lured investors. Now the scenario has changed. Ignorance about art is looked down upon.
Cash rich investors are running to art galleries to gain some knowledge about investments in art. Not that the half-baked information satisfies them but one thing is for sure: It has given many a direction that leads them to invest in art.
There has been a sudden spurt in auction houses, discussion on art, aesthetics and investment on major televisions channels. And many socialites have started taking keen interest in art exhibitions. To top that we have people like Guru Swaroop Shrivastava estimating a Husain creation at a crore. All these factors have added to the popularity of art.
Hence, there are galleries and individuals in the Capital who have come up with the idea of educating people about art. Some are selective enough to impart information on investment and aesthetics for few, while some have opened their gates to all. Some galleries are refurbishing themselves to accommodate new media works too.
Ati Art Gallery belongs to the first category. It imparts art education to "only clients" numbering between 30 and 40 every month for a couple of hours. The gallery which was opened at Maharani Bagh in New Delhi two years ago, is quite selective in doing shows too.
Owned by Poonam Sarin, who is dealing with art and art related activities for nearly 15 years, Ati invites its clients to learn about art under its novel "Artwalk" concept. They invite, "preferably, an art historian" to educate their clients about "art for pleasure and investment".
"We tell them 20 basic points on the subject. We deal with basic concepts like what can be called art, forms of art as lithographs and serigraph, etc, the emergence of art galleries, auction houses, how does a system in art galleries work, why there is a sudden appreciation in the price of the art works, restoration, fake works and so on.
Our purpose is to make them aware about art as also teach them where to invest," says Aarti Sarin, Poonam's daughter who has joined her mother in this initiative.
Kamath's website
While Anoop Kamath, an artist and graphic designer, has recently launched a website only on art called mattersofart.com. Unlike Sarin, Kamath's website is available to one and all for a frank opinion and questionnaire and is also "a tool to introduce newer artists and critics, apart from in-depth knowledge about what makes the art".
The website is updated every day like any other news website. It also introduces a new, talented artist who is doing something new through its artist of the month and interview of the month columns. It previews and reviews art exhibitions.
GOING ONLINE Anoop Kamath
It also deals with the subjects as why an era in art saw its decline. Take for instance, art critic Suneet Chopra recently wrote on the death of trans-Atlantic art on the website.
Kamath's launched this website because he saw the special art magazines (we have only Art and Deal and Art India so far) were quarterly in which the information was a couple of months old.
"The way art scenario is changing on daily basis, we can't wait for a quarterly or monthly magazine to impart us urgent information.
Moreover, we wanted to introduce a free platform to people to satisfy their art related queries. By September, we will revamp the website and include topics like investment, restoration, fakes, what to do when you buy see a fake work, identifying a fake work and so on," says Kamath who was the first speaker at Ati Art Gallery under Art Walk.
Moving on to galleries, so far we had Apeejay Media Gallery at Mathura Road encouraging new media art. Now for some time, Visual Arts Gallery at India Habitat Centre has taken over Habiart Gallery and transformed it to Experimental Art Gallery. With a refurbished look including special light arrangements, this art gallery invites all those artists who have done experiments with their art creations to show their works.
Importantly, all these hubs for art knowledge, thankfully, are dealing more with Indian art than anything global.
Did someone say, know your home before you know others?
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