It was a blazing 45 degrees celsius on Thursday but it did not deter Delhi’s art lovers from thronging the NSIC exhibition grounds in big numbers at 3.00 pm, when the India Art Fair formally opened for a VIP preview.
Back in the physical format after a pandemic-induced break, there was a fair bit of excitement and anticipation about the 13th edition of the event, held in partnership with BMW and has 77 exhibitors across 16 cities. It wil run till May 1.
Spearheaded by a new fair director Jaya Asokan, this edition, say the organisers is marked by a thread of the resilience – both of the art community at large and the art market.
Going by the crowds and the enquiries that several pieces of art got , there seemed to be good buyer interest at India’s only commercial art fair.
Cop Shiva, a policeman turned full-time artist from Karnataka whose photographic works — My Mother and her Sarees —were priced in the vicinity of ₹1.4 lakh each was pretty buoyant at the inquiries his work got. “Hopefully I will be able to sell. For two years, there was no art, no exhibition, nothing, now this big fair is happening, it is good for us,” he said. He described how his family had seen struggles and at one time his mother owned hardly any sarees, but now she is the proud owner of a couple of hundred and that’s the muse for his work.
Seema Kohli, whose artist book A Storm in My Tea Cup was being displayed at Art Heritage gallery spoke about how working in isolation during the pandemic felt pretty eerie. “Solitude is intrinsic to artists. But this time the whole word was cocooned and it felt very different. But it also gave me the luxury of creating something without pressures of time, deadline, no physical shows.”
Kohli who loves her cup of tea and imbibes it in many forms, even growing lemongrass on her terrace, said A Storm in My Teacup reflects the intimacy of conversations had over cups of tea. The book explores the cyclical nature of energies referencing a virtual storm that stems from the three Gunas. Within that chaotic storm, the book tries to capture a moment of stillness.
Only four international galleries were showing at the fair - Aicon (New York, USA), Aicon Contemporary (New York, USA), Grosvenor Gallery (London, UK) and Galeria Karla Osorio (Brasilia, Brazil) though plenty of foreign artists works were on display here brought by local galleries.
At Mumbai based Galerie ISA’s pavilion, for instance, Spanish artist Antonio Santin’s oil on canvas Adrenalina – a skillfully executed ornamental tapestry made one do a double-take — so intricate were the weaves in the painting that was reminiscent of a rich carpet. Carrying a hefty price tag of ₹82 lakh, the gallery spokesperson described how the artist used syringes to execute the layered look. He was confident Santin’s works would be picked up by private collectors. Emilie Pugh’s Oculus — a golden creation made on six layers of paper gilded in 22 carat gold lead was equally striking.
Pandemic inspired art
Significantly, a lot of the works on display were born during the pandemic and depicted the artists’ intuitive response to the Covid crisis. Particularly moving was sculptor K S Radhakrishnan’s The Heap and Ascent Descent which showed the concept of humanity being drained of individuality and simply piled together as a heap.
Radhakrishnan explained how he lost his own mother and it brought home to him starkly that at that time you were either a Covid patient or not - there was no place to be a mother or friend. And yet, the sculpture with his trademark male and female archetypes – Musui and Maya - is not a pessimistic work as the topmost layer is supporting those below, denoting the selfless way many came together to give each other strength.
The classic and the contemporary
There was a good presence of the old masters – Raza, M F Husain et al – as well as fair representation of contemporary artists.
Seven Indian galleries are debuting at the 2022 fair: APRE Art House (Mumbai), Art Incept (Gurugram / New Delhi), Gallery Art Exposure (Kolkata), Modern Art Gallery (New Delhi), Ojas (New Delhi). Terrain.art (New Delhi) and Vidya Heydari Contemporary (Pune).
This edition is also highly collaborative with participation from Kochi Biennale Foundation, Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation and Serendipity Arts, among others.
There were several interesting themes at the fair — sustainability was something seen at the BMW corner, where the progression of electric mobility was showcased and the connection between auto and art strengthened with the BMW iX serving as a canvas.
How art and technology mesh was another theme in evidence. The Studio, a brand new space at the fair is dedicated to making bridges between creative fields — a playful arena with games from the artist duo Thukral and Tagra and interactive bots from an Indian techart platform BeFantastic.