Walking through Art Expo India 2009 in Mumbai’s Nehru Centre, it’s hard to imagine that there is a global economic crisis: DAY-2

The second edition of Art Expo India witnessed participation of several art galleries as well art experts not only from India, but also internationally. In an insightful talk on the last day of the event, she discussed Indian art from a global perspective. There is also interest in the art scene in India from foreign buyers. Auctions of Indian art abroad have had paintings go for as much as $1.6m (Dh5.88m) last year. That was for a Husain work, but the other artists are also doing well, selling for tens of thousands of dollars. At the Korea International Art Fair, India was the guest country. At Art Expo India, the inaugural speech was by Kay Saatchi, the ex-wife of Charles Saatchi, and an art world doyenne in her own right. Today, there will be a talk by Kirsty Ogg, curator of the Whitechapel Gallery in London. “India is on the map,” she says, cheerfully. “The sales in London have been quite good, especially of a core group of Indian artists.” She believes the worst of the tough economic times is behind us: “It’s not quite as catastrophic anymore,” she says, adding: “Just because the sales have dropped, it doesn’t affect the intellectual value of the artwork.”

On eve of her participation at Art Expo India, She was interviewed by Pronoti Datta of TOI. In this post, we reproduce the interesting Q-n-A for the benefit of our readers:

Q: What's your view of the Indian art scene?
A: Over the last eight years, the representation of Indian art has been gaining on the international art scene. And not just on a commercial level. Artists have been appearing in exhibitions like Documenta, the Venice Biennale and publicly funded galleries. So there's a high visibility and awareness about Indian art.

There's also a range of media-from new media to photography-being used in India. What's interesting is that there are two sides to it (Indian art)-in terms of the form of the work that can slip into circulation on the international art scene and the context that has an Indian texture.

Q: Does Whitechapel plan to exhibit Indian art in the near future?
A: We're working on a massive show of Indian photography from the 1860s. It will look at the moment when India took control of the camera. There are the first studio portraits by Deendayal. Among the 70 photographers featured are Pushpamala, Dayanita Singh, Sheeba Chhachhi, Raghu Rai Raghubir Singh and Homai Vyarawala.

There's a real mix between fine art practices that use photography as the medium, documentary photography, straight photography and images that are part of NGO projects. The exhibit will be a virtual lesson in history with images from pre and post-partition India and snapshots from Pakistan as well as Bangladesh.

Q: How has the financial crisis affected art throughout the world?
A: England had a wobble but now things have stabilized. The situation was bad for Indian art because it was coming up on the wave. On the positive side, recession made people reassess basic questions like why have a gallery, who is the audience or who are the prospective buyers?

In Britain we've gone through good and bad times. In the late 1980s, there was a recession and galleries closed. People like Damien Hirst organized shows like ‘Freeze', which happened in a building in Canary Wharf. They didn't wait for a gallery. They made their own show. As artists you have to take a bit of authority. The fundamental questions artists need to answer are: ‘Who sees my work and who's buying my work?’

Just because your work sells, it's not necessarily good. You hope it sells to a good collector who takes care of it. Work quickly sold by a collector can undermine an artist's career. In fact, people start thinking whether the work is good or not.


The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists. became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India Mumbai and India Art Summit New Delhi.

Art Expo India 2009 is back with a bang!

After a very successful run last year, the Art Expo India 2009 is back with a bang! The show this year is bigger than ever with several prominent international personalities, keynote speakers, art consultants and dealers from around the world. Last year’s Exhibition was a major success. Some of the prominent galleries to feature their collections were The Arts Trust and The Osmosis Gallery (Mumbai), Arushi Arts and Ashok Art Gallery (New Delhi), Kalakriti Art Gallery (Hyderabad), Eca Emamichisel Art (Kolkata) and Marvel Art Gallery (Ahmadabad). The Exhibition was attended by luminaries of both the Art and the Corporate world, all united in their common appreciation for Indian Art. Tanya and Arvind Dubash, Pheroja and Jamshyd Godrej, Nancy and Ranjit Hoskote, Niranjan Hiranandani, Kumaramangalam Birla, Yash Birla, Bina and Talat Aziz, and Poonam Dhillon were some of the high profile visitors..

Art Expo India 2009 is a high profile meeting ground for art dealers, galleries, artists and prospective buyers. This exhibition will play a catalytic role in building the art market in India. It is a high end shopping event presenting a wide array of works by famous and upcoming Indian artists. Publishers, dealers, gallery owners and artists will proudly display art in various styles using popular media - from paintings and sculpture to prints and photography.
The exhibition holds the largest gathering of art professionals in India and is the only place where one can meet thousands of new customers on a one-to-one basis. New exhibitors can kick start their businesses and create profitable long-term relationships, making it the meeting ground for art dealers, galleries, artists and prospective buyers.
Visitors will include art collectors, connassiours, architects and interior designers, buyers and corporate decision makers. These important visitors will be specially invited to attend the show. At least 20,000 quality visitors are expected.

On the panel of speakers is the internationally renowned art curator Kay
Saatchi. She began her art career as a Director of the Mayor Rowan Gallery,
London; moving on to be the Contemporary Director of Waddington Galleries,
London. In partnership with her ex-husband, Charles Saatchi, she co-curated
over 34 exhibitions for the Saatchi Collection between l987 and 2001, including
the ‘Sensation’ exhibition show at the Royal Academy, London; Kunsthalle, Berlin and the Brooklyn Museum, New York. In 2003, as Travel Editor of ArtReview, she wrote about emerging art markets in Mumbai, Havana, Morocco, Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa and also covered an Antony Gormley installation in Australia’s outback, and Sydney and Perth. In 2003 she wrote text for the book ‘British Artists at Work’. She is the Founding Director of the ‘Artists & Collectors Exchange’ a program to promote young artists. In 2007 and 2008 she curated ‘ANTICIPATION’, an exhibition of the best of emerging artists from London’s art colleges. With years of experience behind her, Mrs. Saatchi’s keynote address on spotting young talent and building up an art collection will be insightful as well as entertaining.

The Art Expo 2009 will be held on September 25th, 26th and 27th this year,

at Nehru Center, Worli, Mumbai

from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm.

ArtExpo India 2009 Organisers:
Trade & Technology Exposition Co. (India) Pvt. Ltd. was established in 1987 as an exhibition organising company and several events on different themes have been organized by them. Their flagship exhibition is GIFTEX which is now in its 22nd year. With over 70 Trade Shows to their credit Trade & Technology have the experience, the ability and the understanding of the art market as well. The organisation is headed by Mr. Vickram Sethi and has a support team that specialises in setting up trade events.
Mr. Vickram Sethi is a major player in the Indian art market since 1988. Currently the owner of a large gallery, an auction house and an active art portal. He has tremendous domain knowledge of the art market and his experience in the trade show business will ensure success of the ART EXPO INDIA 2009.

For more information please contact:
Aarti Aggarwal at Communiqué Public Relations
022-6610 0304 / 66518061

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists.
Last year we became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India 2008 Mumbai and India Art Summit 2008 New Delhi.