India has a dazzling art scene. The Indian Art market has always been bolstered due to renowned artists like M.F. Husain who maintained the stability in our art economy with an outstanding gallery of unique artworks. Unfortunately, this art market collapsed in the wake of the great financial crisis in recent years.

However, there is no stigma against Indian artists touching a peak in promoting their artworks worldwide. But as we know, the success rate of art not only depends upon the artists and their work, but also on many factors like museums, and most importantly, the collectors who seek their work.

Recent Study of Indian Art Market

As per the latest report undertaken to study the current status of art in our nation, art prices have continued to fall down especially for modern art paintings from the “masters” of Indian art. The size of the market, when measured in 2008, was around INR 1,500 crore that became Rs 1,460 crore in 2017, and went down a further 6% over 2018, as estimated by KPMG-FICCI.

According to the report, demonetization and GST are responsible for last year’s motionless graph. Current estimation states that India is 0.5% of the global art market and China is approximately 40 times our size. It concludes that the internal affairs of our art market are even more disturbing than earlier.

Impact on Indian Artists

The sudden decline in the growth of our art market has left a negative influence on our Indian artists. Imagine what would happen if we take out a group of famous Indian artists like Husain, Raza, Mehta, Souza, Gaitonde, Padamsee, Sabavala, Ram Kumar, Khakhar and Swaminathan from the artists’ list? It would hardly survive.

The financial condition of artists is getting adversely affected. The digital platform that was a boon for Indian artists to show their talent globally and thereby gaining a lot of economic benefits has now become a bane, due to many factors that we are going to discuss below.

Factors contributing to the decline

The factors pointing towards the decline in our nation’s art include a lack of institutional support, an artificial rise in art prices, and the shifting of collectors and galleries from Europe in favour of contemporary art from other regions like Africa, as stated by the FICCI-KPMG report.

The major problem found for this decline in the art economy is the selling of artworks of India’s established Modern Masters like M.F. Husain and S. H. Raza outside our country. Another issue is the growing number of international museums displaying artworks by artists from the region. It has resulted in an escalation of the prices of even the available works by these artists, paving a way towards a narrow market, which is never a healthy market.

Drastic change in Art Galleries sale

The scrapping of high-value currency notes has a negative influence on sales of art galleries, dealing in sales of affordable art, according to the report.

Due to the formation of the new taxation structure, artworks (including paintings, drawings, prints, original sculptures and antiquities older than 100 years) fall under the 12% tax bracket. It resulted in their higher prices, making them more expensive than previously measured. This tax rate of 12% is significant enough to discourage collectors from buying artworks.

Key challenges in the Indian Art Industry

There are some challenges that are affecting our art industry at some point. Let’s have a look at the disputes that are becoming hindrances to the art industry’s growth!

• Improper infrastructure
• Absence of Skilled Manpower
• Proliferation of Forged art
• Art unawareness

Final Thoughts

Growth in our art industry is essential for having a strong foundation in positioning India as one of the major art destinations. But the real hindrances to this growth must be tackled soon. Corporates and the private sector can serve as a useful tool for the art industry in raising funds through art festivals and events helping our artists. Government support in the form of funding, infrastructure, and rationalizing the tax structure would be fruitful in building a solid base upon which the industry shall flourish.