Mumbai: A recent news report mentioned that a Chinese woman landed herself in trouble when she tried to sell an ancient mirror containing an image which had four pairs of lovers on it. She was arrested on charges of selling pornography. In Mumbai too, artists have often faced flak for art that has been ‘misconstrued’ as pornography.

One of the most prominent cases being that of renowned artist Akbar Padamsee who was arrested for his ‘nude’ works in 1954. “Both the lower and higher courts upheld my view,” he asserts. “I think pornography is in the mind of the spectator and it is the latter who must be taken to the psychiatrist, not the artist.”

Another instance is the exhibition Futurisitic Shiva by artist Rajat Dhar that showed at Ashish Balram Nagpal’s gallery last year. “It got me into a tangle with the cops because it focused on Shiva’s torso,” says Nagpal. “I also had a serious problem when I presented Sanjeev Khandekar’s show in 2007 called Tits, Clits and Elephant Dick at Jehangir Art Gallery. Someone filed a litigation saying his work was all about nudity,” he recalls. “It’s not right. You can’t censor art; it goes against what it stands for.”

Echoes gallery owner Shireen Gandhy on the public uproar of Khandekar’s exhibition that resulted in the work subsequently being taken out by the management of the gallery. “That was the most reprimandable thing! It makes my blood boil and I feel so disgruntled and sick about it as it had become a whole moral police issue.”

But secretary of Jehangir Art Gallery, K G Menon, has a differing view. “Our management has taken a strong objection to nude works being shown in the gallery; works that are ‘unbearable’ are not put up. That is because this is a public gallery and we have even five and six-year-olds coming in and such nude works can definitely harm their young minds.”

Gallery owner Vickram Sethi has the last say, “In India, we have such a convoluted view of pornography and it’s quite a hypocritical stance. Look at Indian mythology — it borders on the erotic!”

The Vered Gallery brought a portrait of Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol to ArtHamptons. At first no one wanted it and the auction had to be halted. Now the dealers are claiming they have so much interest that the painting might reach $10 million, according the Agence France Presse:

“We had an overwhelming response,” said Janet Lehr, owner of the East Hampton, New York gallery.

“We stopped the auction. It was supposed to close on July 12th, but there were too many people making inquiries,” said Lehr, who said bidding already is up to 800,000 dollars — three times what the anonymous owner paid for the work in May.

Of course, the source for that ridiculous valuation is unnamed and the whole story has the air of farce, including the fact that the painting was purchased recently for a reported $300,000. And they say speculators have left the art market . . . .

I found this article in Art News on experts who explain where the values are and what to avoid in the current market. It is a must read. The Art market seems to be one of the rare markets now showing positive signs and might be the only safe harbour throughout the crisis we are experiencing. (View my recent posts on the latest Christie’s Auction of the Century with Yves Saint Laurent’s estate) I noticed a little bit of a drop in sales when this all started to get more intense just a few months back, but things are picking up again. This article hit it bang on, it’s all about quality, and our artists speak for themselves. This is the best time to buy art.
“It’s the best time to buy,” said Don Rubell, who with his wife, Mera, is on the ARTnews list of the world’s top 200 collectors.
“I’d buy till it hurts right now,” said Peter Marzio, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

“If you’re liquid, this is the time when there are bargains,” said Michael Findlay, a director of Acquavella Galleries in New York.

“There are unbelievable opportunities,” said William Ruprecht, Sotheby’s chief executive officer.

What’s going on? Where have these folks been lately? After all, the Wall Street bankers, the Russian oligarchs, the hedge-fund poo-bahs, the casino tycoons, and the Asian billionaires no longer have so many billions. It’s no secret that the art bubble has burst.

The sales of Impressionist, modern, postwar, and contemporary art at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips de Pury & Company last November yielded a total of $803.3 million, less than half of the $1.75 billion total of November 2007. No one is convinced that private art sales, which annually reach between $25 billion and $30 billion, will climb that high this year.

Last year Leslie Waddington, the London dealer, told me that the good times had to end. “Everything is cyclical,” he said. “I just don’t understand what’s happening.” He added: “I’m expecting trouble, but I have been expecting trouble for a year and a half, and nothing has happened.”

Some weeks ago, he told me, “The telephones aren’t ringing.”

However, Roland Augustine, president of Luhring Augustine and president of the Art Dealers Association of America, is “very positive” about 2009.

“As painful as this contraction is, it’s a welcome time for the art market because the inflationary conditions in the market in the last few years have seen their final days,” he said. “I welcome that. Collectors welcome it. The speculation, at least for the moment, has seen its demise. We have moved away from appreciating the language of art toward treating art as a commodity, and as long as you treat it that way you lose the value of the language.

“I think we will also see better art produced. I think in times like these artists will spend more time considering the art they are creating, instead of being driven to produce art for the marketplace. Artists in many cases have spread themselves very thinly over the last decade.”

The last time there was trouble in the art market was in the 1990s. “I was at the art fair in Basel,” said Rubell, who with his wife established the Rubell Family Collection as a museum of contemporary art in Miami. “It was so empty that you could roll a bowling ball down the aisles.”

Two years ago, at the height of the art boom,you could not roll bowling balls during the Art Basel Miami Beach fair. The fair organizers usually arrange for very rich collectors—dealers are not invited—to attend in advance of the official opening. They line up at the entrance and are permitted to come into the fair two hours before collectors who are not so rich. This gives them a head start in seeing works for sale at the various booths.

“They weren’t exactly grabbing works off the wall, but it was something like a stampede,” said one observer. “It was a feeding frenzy,” said another. One private dealer disguised himself, managed to get on the line, and hurried to various booths so he could advise his clients what to buy.

So if the good times have ended, how do you buy and sell works of art in a recession?

“The current economy provides opportunities for collectors who are really serious about acquiring works of art at the highest quality level, which may have seemed impossible before,” said Marzio. “Now is the time to go up in quality. Everyone always says they buy the best, but they don’t.”

“The real collectors are still buying—but less,” said Pierre Levai, president of Marlborough.

Raymond J. Learsy, a prominent New York collector with his wife, Melva Bucksbaum, agreed. He said, “I’ve always felt that the art market marches to a different drummer than financial markets. People who are really interested in art are a little bit like smokers. You just can’t give it up. It becomes intrinsic to your life and you go and delve into resources that you might not have thought you had to continue collecting.”

Rubell told me that some of the best pieces in his collection were bought during the last recession. “It takes courage to buy at a moment like this, but you get rewarded very much,” he said. “Things are available now. There’s more negotiating going on. Buy pieces from artists who are totally established, who have a track record, or buy from very young artists. There’s always a new generation of artists coming up.”

Jay Gorney, director of contemporary art at the New York gallery Mitchell-Innes & Nash, agreed: “It’s certainly an opportunity to look at the work of younger artists whose work may have been undervalued. It also gives you a chance to look at those artists who may not have realized huge prices or reached the popularity of some of their peers.”

Findlay had another suggestion. He said, “Rather than look for things that may have diminished greatly because they went up quickly in value, look for works by artists who have had a steady increase, who have a track record from before the bubble. Avoid artists who may have risen enormously. I don’t think the market yet knows what those values might be.”

He added, “People who have works of high quality are not going to give them away. And when they are forced to sell, there will be a degree of competition for works that are very good. Also, collectors are going to be more patient. They don’t have to make their minds up overnight.”

One reason collectors no longer have to make a decision in a hurry is that the waiting list some galleries had for works by certain artists has disappeared.

Chelsea art dealer Edward Winkleman offered advice on his blog on how to buy, urging collectors not to stop looking, “even if your art buying budget has been squeezed due to the economy. . . . Looking is free. I suspect many collectors cringe at the thought of an anxious young dealer swooping down upon them with desperate discount offers or pleas for any purchase, but it’s easy enough to be frank with such gallerists, saying you can’t make any purchases at the moment, but you’re still very interested in their program and wish to continue to see their new shows.”

What about discounts? Winkleman says, “You can expect a much meeker response from dealers to your inquiries about discounts these days, I’ll bet on that. But focusing on discounts alone may not be your best means of securing that piece you want. Discussing discounts in conjunction with a long-term interest in the gallery program is your best avenue here.”

Another tip: “Many young collectors may not know that most galleries are happy to work out some sort of payment plan.”

Auctioneers have changed payment plans, too. They have said they would cut guarantees, stop offering bargains on commission charges to sellers, and tighten credit terms to buyers. Price estimates have also been revised.

Museums, of course, have had to change plans, too. Some have made cuts in staff and reduced budgets. I asked Everett Fahy, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman of the European paintings department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, how museums have been affected during other periods of economic turmoil.

“Some of the greatest paintings at the Metropolitan, including Andrea Mantegna’s The Adoration of the Shepherds, Jean Antoine Watteau’s Mezzetin, and Jacques-Louis David’s The Death of Socrates, came to the museum during the Great Depression in the 1930s because people were forced to sell,” he said.

I asked Rubell if the “feeding frenzy” will return.

“Collectors are obsessive, compulsive, and competitive people who always like to get the best first,” he said.

ST. HELENS, UK – The final piece of “Dream”, a landmark new sculpture, was lowered into place on the site of a former coal mine in St.Helens, next to a busy motorway where it will be seen by millions of motorists each year. The spectacular 20 metre-high ‘Dream’ sculpture, by internationally renowned artist Jaume Plensa, is situated on the site of the former Sutton Manor Colliery in St.Helens, midway between Liverpool and Manchester. A celebratory, forward-looking symbol of both St.Helens’ rich mining heritage and its more recent post-industrial transformation, ‘Dream’ will be highly visible to the 100,000 people who drive past the site on the M62 every day.

‘Dream’ was commissioned by local ex-miners and St.Helens Council as part of Channel 4’s Big Art Project, an ambitious public art commissioning initiative supported by Arts Council England, the national development agency for the arts, and The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity.

The Big Art Project seeks to inspire and create new works of public art, commissioned by communities, as well as debating the importance of art in the built environment. The journey leading up to today’s unveiling of Dream, along with seven other Big Art Project sites across the UK, has been filmed for Big Art, a major four-part Channel 4 series, which starts on Sunday 10 May at 7.00pm.

Dream is the artist’s response to the brief and to subsequent conversations with the ex-miners group and members of the wider local community, who, far from wanting a mining monument, sought instead a forward-looking piece that would provide a beautiful, inspiring, contemplative space for generations to come. The work is intended to become a gateway feature for both Merseyside and Greater Manchester at the heart of the Northwest and to symbolize the remarkable regeneration of the whole region.

Weighing more than 370 tonnes, and individually fabricated in 90 unique panels of pre-cast concrete, Dream takes the form of a girl’s head with her eyes closed, seemingly in a dream-like state, and has taken seven months to construct.

It is difficult to image anyone less suited to the role. A frail, soft-spoken artist who lived with his wife, Sakina, in a small walk-up apartment in a Mumbai suburb, Mr. Mehta was dismissive of the association of art with money. He had spent a lifetime living lean and would continue to. He made nothing from the auctions; the paintings sold had long been out of his hands.

He was also not the kind of artist who could make hay of a sudden career spurt by turning out new work fast. He was a slow, meticulous painter and a ruthless self-editor who destroyed many more pictures than he ever let out of the studio. He didn’t take commissions, and was reluctant to produce anything on demand. Independence and solitude were, for him, beyond price.

Mr. Mehta was born in the rural state of Gujurat, in western India, in 1925, and reared in an orthodox Shiite Muslim community in Mumbai, then called Bombay. His family was in the movie business. He initially worked as a film editor and continued to make films long after he become a painter, winning a Filmfare Critics Award for his 1970 documentary “Koodal,” shot in a slaughterhouse.
Despite his early interest in film, he enrolled in the Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai in 1947, when he was 22. The school, established under British rule, stressed the study of European art. In the same momentous year India declared its independence from colonial rule, and the partition of Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan was enforced. [...]

The early post-colonial period was one of ferment for new Indian art. In Mumbai Mr. Mehta associated with the Progressive Artists Group, one of many such affiliations throughout the country. The Mumbai group, with Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002) and M. F. Husain among its members, was particularly cosmopolitan in its approach to art, combining Indian subject matter with Post-Impressionist colors, Cubist forms and brusque, Expressionistic styles.

Several of these artists left India for Europe and the United States, and Mr. Mehta did, too, for a while. He lived in London for five years, beginning in 1959, where he supported himself by working in a morgue. In 1968 he visited New York City on a Rockefeller Fellowship, then returned to India.

There were well-received solo shows, but the market in India was negligible. A supportive infrastructure of galleries, museums and collectors — of a kind that exists in India now — was simply not there. “To pick up a brush, to make a stroke on the canvas — I consider these acts of courage in this country,” Mr. Mehta said to his fellow artist and countryman Gieve Patel, in the 1960s.

Michael Jackson’s brand of pop knew no borders and needed no translation linking listeners around the world through his classic rhythm, beat and dance.

Across the world, people reacted in stunned disbelief Thursday as word spread that Michael Jackson had collapsed and died. As word spread that Jackson had been pronounced dead, several people burst into tears. Others simply stood in disbelief. Still others whipped out cell phones and began calling or texting friends.

His trials and tribulations for the most part were overlooked; most people came seeking a connection with an icon or simply celebrated, sung and played his music while others barely familiar with his work recorded the occasionally tumultuous scene with cell phone cameras.

Here is how ART – his very own music, dance, rhythm and beat, did salute the legion.

Los Angeles the morning of 25th June 2009

When death reached Michael he was reeling with pain……

“MY dear..come…..get up…..their lies our final destination” said Death as she continued to caress Michael.

“Mother!” exclaimed Michael, “I cannot accompany you now as I have promised a compelling show to the world and the show is slated in a month. I have dedicated my heart and soul to the show ……..For heaven’s sake leave me for few more days please….” Michael continued to plead as tears rolled down his cheeks.

“O Dear ! I wish could help you for duty has cuffed my hands ……..you need to come along………..come……get up”

With a heavy heart Michael accompanied death to heaven……….. ART, which stood there overhearing the conversation, decided to go with Michael as she mourned his treasured son

AS THEY REACHED HEAVEN……..

Tears filled the eyes of Mother Art as she parted her dear son,

“Son……..my heart mourns as I part with you but before I go back to the world I wonder how….how at all can you make such a big mistake ? How can my son, a master of balance, do this?

“You paid all attention to maintain balance between Art and its soul” continued Mother Art, “but how can you miss on maintaining a balance between your body and Art”

Michael was agape “my body…my own self……….what does ‘Body’ mean? And what is it that you mean Mother?”

There stood art……………frozen with what she had just heard. She had realized where she had gone wrong…………..she stood their silently holding her ear in apology and grief.

By now death had realized her mistake. Death could not but repent her act and she too held her ear and stood in apology.

The repentance of his mothers’ moved Michael to the core………..having seen them like this, the music legion held his ear too as if, he sought apology not only from death and art but from the entire world…………………….

Such was the dedication of the Peter Pan of Pop towards ART and to the world…………….

WE LOVE U MICHAEL AND WILL KEEP ON MISSING YOU TILL INFINITY !!!!!

BY:Shilpi Agarwal (with inputs from Paras Dasot, an eminent Indian Artist.)

Email: shilpi@indianartideas.com

Note: The author is an art curator, an avid art collector and also the Creative Head at IndianArtIdeas.com, a premier interactive art portal.

MUMBAI: Noted artist Tyeb Mehta died early Thursday morning at his residence in Mumbai.

The 84-year old artist was suffering from heart trouble. He is survived by his wife Sakina, a son and a daughter.

His canvas at a June 2008 Christie’s auction fetched him his highest-ever price of $2 million.

Mehta’s canvas ‘Kali’- a dramatic, disturbing work depicting the Goddess with a gouged mouth, broke the Rs 1 crore barrier in 2005, and his ‘Celebration’- an expanse of shrouded figures, went for Rs 1.5 crore in 2002.

The artist received the Padma Bhushan in 2007.

Born in Gujarat in 1925, Tyeb Mehta spent an initial period working as a film editor in a cinema laboratory. He received his diploma in painting from Sir J J School of Art, Mumbai, in 1952

Tyeb Mehtas occupy pride of place in living rooms of the rich and famous from Mumbai to LA. But 82-year-old Mehta himself has managed from his

life’s earnings a sparse middle-class apartment, one room in it converted to a studio, in Lokhandwala, Mumbai. The most highly-valued art works in India lean face-against-the-wall in his studio, as the dust and noise of Andheri rises beneath.

Has recession affected art prices? Tyeb, who leads the market rate, should know. His last canvas Kali broke the Rs 1 crore barrier, and his Celebration went for Rs 1.5 crore in 2003. A Christies’s representative says of him, “Tyeb Mehta is undoubtedly amongst our most important Indian artist.” But, Mehta finds it an insulting question. “I do not paint for money, or for what people think of me or of my work. I am not part of this hyped up ‘art world’, yet, this changing world outside my window is reflected in my work. I paint of my times, but I am not of this time.” Mehta has lost vision in one eye, has partial vision in the other, and reaches his canvases with the help of a walker. “He is frail,” his wife Sakina admits, “but he keeps on. Even when in hospital, he just wanted to go back to his paintings.” Still, he stands with his brush and paints everyday.

As recession has sent art prices hurtling, the true artist continues irrespective. Sculptor Dhruva Mistry explains, “For a good artist, consistency of commitment, perseverance, patience and the pleasure of a good day’s work matter. Those who follow the vortex of demand, and supply fresh art as a commodity, discover the price of speed in trying times.”

As collectors swoop in for a good deal, genuine artists are not affected. Kate Malin, Asia spokesperson for Christies explains, “We are witnessing more disciplined buying than in previous years, but there is still strong demand and committed bidding for the rarest and the best, despite economic challenges.”

Like it matters. Multi-crore deals don’t reach the artists. Of all the people who have made crores off Mehta, “it was only the magnanimous Ebrahim Alkazi who gave us 25 per cent of what he sold Kali for,” says Sakina, touched. Mehta only knows his works are on sale when he sees them in catalogues. Yet, it is this isolation from the hyped art world, this struggle for purity of art, this oblivion to price, that shapes an artist; any true artist.

Curator and author of Tyeb Mehta, Ranjit Hoskote explains, “Tyeb Mehta symbolises the resolute and unwavering quality of questing, with which the members of India’s first postcolonial generation of artists approached their vocation. To Tyeb, the need to articulate the crises and exultations of his society is paramount. During the six decades of his artistic practice, this need has taken precedence over personal comfort, worldly success, commercial gain, and critical acclaim. Tyeb has patterned his life on the ideal of the artist who must speak autonomously of social, economic or cultural systems of dominance,” he says.

Gallerists like Ranjana Steinrucke, Pravina Mecklai, collectors like industrialist Harsh Goenka are relieved. Recession has pulled true art out of the bubble. Goenka points out, “Most artists in the past struggled in their work and in life. The angst that prevailed in their lives had a profound effect on their thoughts and the works of art were made in that background. It helped to bring out better work. The present generation has it too easy, relatively.

Therefore, the works reflect their thinking and their lifestyle. Sometimes you don’t see the same level of intensity as in the past.” He believes recession has changed that. “Most dealers and artists today have witnessed a drop in sales to about 80 per cent and a lot of speculators had burnt their boats buying at peak prices. They have no choice now and are unloading at low prices. Artists, who were churning substandard work to meet demand, now have the time for better art.”

Art parties are worlds apart from Tyeb Mehta, once an active member of the Progressive Artists Group, which included greats like Souza, Raza and Husain—now in exile. “I live and work in isolation. I don’t know young artists today. Nobody comes to my door to ask me about my craft. I don’t have time for ‘art dos’ nor do I relate to new works. Great artistic traditions like music and dance are passed on by interaction. This is how art lived and grew through the Progressives. How else will true art be passed on?”