| It isn’t just India’s politicians but its artists | | | | equally hated artist is M F Husain, 94 years this |
| as well who refuse to let age come in the way of | | | | August, who single-handedly broke the cordons of |
| their constituency. At different points, different | | | | exclusivity and took his famous art works |
| artists have been important not just from the | | | | mainstream to the masses. From travelling around |
| point of view of art aesthetics, or value, but | | | | the world in bare feet to creating a show of |
| because of the pivotal role they have played in | | | | crumpled newspapers, he has mocked critics, |
| providing the stepping stones with which to | | | | courted moneyed buyers yet reached out to |
| monitor the key turns in Indian art styles. These | | | | people, a bond he built as a hoarding artist painting |
| must necessarily include famous master artists | | | | posters for Bollywood marquees. Some of the |
| such as Raja Ravi Varma less for his kitschy | | | | most iconic images in Indian art gallery have been |
| calendar pop-art and more for the fusion of Indian | | | | created from his palette — Mother Teresa, |
| and European idioms that continues to dictate | | | | Indira Gandhi, the Lady with the Lamp, vignettes |
| popular taste; the Tagore family for opening up | | | | from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and of |
| the way art was viewed in India; Nandalal Bose, | | | | course, his horses. In recent times it seems to be |
| India’s first truly renaissance artist; and | | | | trendy to dismiss Husain’s prodigious talent, |
| Amrita Sher-Gil for the passion she brought to | | | | but make no mistake: Husain is India’s tour de |
| the form in her very short life. | | | | force of art. Currently at home in Dubai, where |
| India’s tryst with modern art traces its origins | | | | he is creating a series on the Arabic civilization and |
| to roughly the turn of the last century up to | | | | in London, where he has a home, Husain has shied |
| India’s independence, and it is the | | | | away from returning to India fearing for his life |
| “moderns” — as both the artists and | | | | from Hindu fundamentalists who have objected to |
| their art is referred to — who define the | | | | some of his paintings. His prices, always the |
| popular perception of how we view art in this | | | | bellwether index of the art world, have fallen |
| country. Among these, the most radical by far | | | | recently, though he has struck the biggest deals |
| was F N Souza whose provocative contemporary | | | | for the largest sums of money that any Indian |
| art gallery includes drawings and paintings earned | | | | artist has commanded: a gimmicky Rs 100 crore |
| him a fair share of ire and more brickbats than | | | | for one such series in India, and an undisclosed |
| bouquets, though it might be said in the same | | | | sum for his work on the Arab civilization, making |
| breath that his sensibility lent more towards | | | | him without a doubt India’s richest living artist. |
| European extremism than any obvious Indian | | | | One reason for the fall in Husain’s price is his |
| sensibility. | | | | proclivity to paint too much, too fast, the exact |
| Souza was a victim of his own excesses, but | | | | opposite of Mumbai-based Tyeb Mehta, 84 years, |
| among those who once shared the platform with | | | | who refuses to let his debilitating health keep him |
| him are three painters who without doubt can be | | | | from his canvas. If it appears that Mehta has |
| regarded as the greatest living artists of this | | | | painted very little, it is because of his tendency to |
| country. Of them, S H Raza, has been referred | | | | ruthlessly destroy those works that don’t |
| to also as the greatest living artist of France, and | | | | measure up to his critical gaze. In many ways, |
| while that might be arguable — his work is | | | | Mehta could be called minimalist: Since the |
| collected mostly by Indians — Raza, 87 years, | | | | seventies, his subjects have been mythological. He |
| has said that by the end of this year he would | | | | seems to enjoy scale, but what is most |
| like to wind up his atelier in Paris and return to the | | | | compelling is the energy on his canvases that is at |
| country of his birth, to probably New Delhi, where | | | | once awesome and fearful. His price point has held |
| he is in the process, with friend Ashok Vajpeyi, of | | | | steady for many years now, and even though |
| searching for land to create an institution for the | | | | Souza exceeded his auction high of Rs 8.2 crore |
| arts. | | | | in a surprise upset last year, there can be no |
| Raza’s record at a Saffronart auction is Rs | | | | doubt that Tyeb Mehta is not only India’s |
| 4.2 crore, which must seem formidable given that | | | | greatest living artist, his works are most likely to |
| critics have savaged him for repeatedly painting | | | | continue to escalate in value over the years. |
| variations of the Bindu and the Mandala, forms | | | | There is a large scope for Indian art styles world |
| that set him apart from his peers, creating a | | | | wide. Artflute kinds of platforms are an |
| visual language that is both abstract as well as | | | | endeavor to build India’s first Indian |
| rooted in the tradition of tantra. Raza’s prices | | | | Contemporary Art gallery and artist community. |
| have skittered and gained since 2000, and have | | | | The philosophy of the Artflute is to create a |
| consolidated after 2003, casting him as a blue-chip, | | | | platform for new talent and at the same time |
| even though critics — and collectors — say | | | | allow young collectors to buy at early artist prices. |
| Raza’s paintings don’t compel you to | | | | It is for every kind of collector and artist… from |
| want all of his important works since they seem | | | | young collectors to veterans, from young artists |
| to replicate each other. | | | | to Masters. |
| India’s most maverick, most loved and | | | | |