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Miniature Exodus Though the contemporary miniature has achieved cult status abroad, art lovers at home have to settle for second best.
By Salwat Ali |
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The contemporary miniature is no longer ours to have and to hold. The best, choicest pieces are now gracing gallery walls abroad, while viewers at home have to contend with seconds. The genre's popularity level, especially in the UK and USA, continues to soar, endowing it with a 'hot property' status, while generous prices in foreign currency when translated into rupees render the art form well out of reach for the average Pakistani buyer. Thematically as well, the new miniature has changed. Initially addressing domestic problems, frequent opportunities to exhibit abroad brought a distinct change in the artistic mindset. The focus has now shifted to geo-political concerns and social issues like gender discrimination, violence and terrorism with another viewership in mind as these are popular issues of debate in the west. Moreover, some talented miniature graduates have settled abroad and are emerging as diaspora artists. Living a bi-cultural existence, they are voicing their own dispersal and bringing new interpretations to old issues. This is shifting the miniature further away from home-ground towards a global centrality. And then the genre has also begun to lose its inherent classicism as miniature artists succumb to varied artistic styles and techniques. Presently the potpourri is still delectable, but a feeling of alienation is beginning to set in as the medium homes in on bigger and more lucrative markets. When we see indigenous art establishing an identity abroad, there is an obvious sense of pride, but home audiences are being left behind. A stronger foothold at the source of origin will give longevity to the genre. Art should live in the hearts of the people not just in the pockets of the investors. If the miniature is bent on mounting the roller coaster, the fun might end after a few dizzy spells. A two-artist exhibition held at Canvas recently centred on contemporary miniatures by Nusra Latif and personal statements in different media, by Navin Hyder. Nusra Latif currently lives and works in Melbourne. She acquired her BFA from the National College of Arts in 1995 and completed her MFA from the Victoria College of Art, University of Melbourne in 2002. As a miniature artist she has had solos at home and abroad since 1999, while her most recent exhibition was 'Intentions of Memory' in 2005, at the Mc Leeland Print Room, Melbourne. She has also been a participant in major group shows of the miniature outside Pakistan, the latest being the Karkhana show, 'A Contemporary Collaboration,' at the Aldrich Museum, USA. Nusra's work at Canvas does not reveal itself immediately. The female figures, seated or standing, are executed in the traditional Mughal style and they have a defined presence, but with a quiet reserve about them. Their body language gains meaning when the artist discloses, "The work for this show is an exploration of a woman's childbearing capacities, how her body changes, miscarriage, emotional changes and expectations." Especially relevant in this regard is 'Silent Spaces,' 1and 2. Her vocabulary of organic imagery in the form of floral bursts, bouquets and foliated stems also supports her stance on life and growth. Integrating nature with human existence, she weaves a narrative on different aspects of life. Elaborating on her approach, she asserts "I try to maintain a point of view distinctly from a woman's position, be it a reflection on political disorder, or personal relationships." Technically, Nusra's miniature grounding loses none of its strength as she ventures into interactive stylisations. She negotiates the unbroken line with a very controlled hand, which is particularly evident in her very direct drawings of floral sprays. But she has been far more inventive in her previous works where figurative and floriated outlines intertwined to suggest larger meanings. The artist makes novel use of the decorative pattern, using it as a design ploy as well as a conceptual metaphor. The dagger image, a historical emblem, also signifies death and destruction. In 'Silent Spaces 1,' colour application is given a contemporary twist. Instead of the old miniatures' jewel-like brilliance, the red and green contrast is bold and dramatic. However, other images are pale and mellow with a spare use of white and gold. When questioned about the steep price tags that miniatures command nowadays, Nusra remarked that prices are escalating because Pakistanis are now becoming more aware of their own art and their spending power has strengthened the market. Regarding the miniature genre specifically, she says, "miniature paintings are not sold by the square inch. Painters have to fetch prices that are comparable to other artists. Some artists have been around for ten years, and there has been a gradual increase not an overnight one." Printmaking is a less understood genre with a low popularity profile and the digital variety has yet to gain credibility as an authentic artwork. Art buyers wondering why Nusra was selling her miniature digital prints for as much as Rs 30,000, almost the price of a good original, may agree with her reply. "Regarding the price of my digital prints, I must clarify that it is not the average dodgy, digital, bubble jet print. The technology has advanced considerably in the last few years. The specialist art printer I am using is very good and different from the normal office printer. It costs quite a lot and the prints have a long life." Nusra's digital prints in editions of thirty, are printed on archival paper with pigment inks and they have a life stretching over a hundred years. The art of Navin Hyder, the other participant in the show, is a study of contrasts. She seems to be locating herself between the loud and the oversized and the subtle and the minimal. She is not pushing herself to arrive at any conclusions, preferring to explore her choices and remain open to diversity. Her series titled 'Waiting,' spread over six pairs of drawings, displays her ability to economise her strokes. Each frame has a lone figure sketched with the barest number of lines in an expectant or non-interactive posture. A graphic traffic symbol, signifying the appropriate 'waiting' symbol, accompanies each sketch. The artist has something going for herself here, the works are engaging and can be developed to advantage. Her large canvas pieces, partial close-ups of the human face, with primitive stroke-work, truck art stickers and cheeky humour seem brash in comparison.
Navin Hyder is an Indus Valley graduate from the batch of
2000. She spent an extra year to complete her thesis in miniature
painting. With considerable teaching experience behind her, she
is presently attached to the faculty of the Fine Arts department
of IVSAA. As an artist she has participated in a number of selective
group shows and her solo 'Whaam' was held at Rohtas 1and 2 sometime
ago. A residency at Gasworks in London, this year is the most recent
addition to her career profile. Lagging Behind
Pakistani art is only just beginning to make it at Indian-dominated art auctions abroad. From Aziz Kurtha in Dubai It is common knowledge that the Indian economy has been experiencing a massive boom, with the stock exchange scaling new heights every few months, property prices rising and real estate in Bombay being valued higher than real estate in New York and Tokyo. However, what is less well known is the fact that the rise in prices of Indian contemporary art exceeds by far the performance of the stock market and certainly the increase in property prices. To get an idea of the staggering increase in prices one has to simply flip through the 1997 Sotheby's catalogue, which prices paintings by M.F. Husain and F.N. Souza at 15,000 - 30,000 US dollars, with the exceptional ones hitting 40,000 US dollars. The same paintings came up for resale at auctions in mid-2005 and were evaluated at 30 to 40 times the prices listed in 1997. This phenomenon has attracted the big hitters in the business world in India, especially those traders and industrialists operating from London, New York and elsewhere in the USA, who find that buying art enables them not only to flaunt a one-crore rupee painting above the sofa in their living room, but also helps them to profit at a level they cannot hope to do through the stock market or their own businesses. In an article on Indian contemporary art in The Observer newspaper of London recently, the artist Krishen Khanna commented: "The major stimulus to all this has been the non-resident Indians who are a homesick lot, and who want a bit of their motherland to hang in their homes," and a gallery owner, Arun Vadhera, who is also planning a sale of about 30 Picassos - prints and originals - stated, "People are spending millions on weddings. I think they are ready to spend that much on art." An Indian cancer specialist from Pennsylvania bought a Padamsee painting at Christie's for 400,000 US dollars and then proceeded to contact me for Souza and Husain's works. Sales of European and American art of both, the Old and Modern Masters, has been a regular occurrence at the main auction houses for at least a couple of centuries, but the increase in the prices of this work has been gradual and nowhere near the speed at which the value of Indian and South East Asian art has risen. Who, then, are the big draws in the Indian art world? The well known ones are, of course, M.F. Husain who is now 91, S.H. Raza, F.N. Souza, Tyeb Mehta, Ram Kumar, Akbar Padamsee, Ganesh Pyne and Anjolie Ela Menon. Of the younger artists it is C. Mazumdar, Atul Dodiya and Arpita Singh whose work is being sought by buyers. Three to four years ago, art collectors could buy their work for approximately 5,000-10,000. Now their prices have shot up to 150,000 US dollars and upwards. For those wishing to dip their toes into the Indian art market, the best places would be the major galleries like Vadehra Art in New Delhi and the Pundole Gallery in Bombay, or the online auction site, saffronart.com, which has been a phenomenal success. Apart from the galleries, it is the three auction houses of Sotheby's, Christie's and Bonhams which rule the roost, both through their auction sales in London as well as in New York. At a recent auction at Christie's, Tyeb Mehta's 'Mahisasura' sold for 1.584 million, five times the auction record. The buyer was an Indian expat. Given the soaring prices of Indian art, the real question here is, why is Pakistani contemporary art selling at much lower prices than its Indian equivalent? The greater buying power of the average Indian businessman compared to his Pakistani counterpart is a factor, in addition to the fact that the Indian art scene is more established. The number of Indian professional artists of repute is between 50 to 100 whereas Pakistan has between 10 to 15. Incidentally, Indian painter F.N. Souza's work is presently being exhibited at the Tate in London. This is the first time in the gallery's history that an artist from the subcontinent has been given a solo. One Pakistani artist who is making waves in the west is miniaturist Shazia Sikander. She has held successful solo exhibitions in several galleries in the US, including Gallery Sikkema and the Whitney Museum in New York. But it will take a while before her work makes it to the auctions abroad. Contemporary art in Pakistan has only very recently been recognised as an investment vehicle, as opposed to simply a piece of art that serves to grace the interior of a house. It also has to be borne in mind that the real catalyst for the commercialisation of Indian contemporary art in recent years are people like Chester Herwitz, an American of Jewish origin who collected thousands of works of Indian contemporary art, starting 1960 onwards. When he died in 1995, this collection came into the auction market and acted as a tremendous impetus to reviving and enlivening the Indian art scene. Apart from a few people, Pakistan has not cultivated too many serious collectors, and even the present collectors hardly ever sell their works. An exception is Farida Ataullah, who has sold more than two dozen works of Sadequain through Bonhams, and more recently Najmi Sura, who has disposed off several of Jamil Naqsh's works. The couple now seem to have moved base to London. So will the bubble of the Indian art market soon burst? Although
there has, undoubtedly, been some overheating in the art market,
most dealers predict that the better pieces of art by recognised
top painters will probably hold their prices through turbulent times,
even after the present madness subsides. |
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