My Indian Art Adventure - artmarketblog.com

My Indian Art Adventure - artmarketblog.com

Today’s post is going to be a (very welcome) diversion from the time
consuming and mind bending series I am doing on the reasons for the art
market crash in the early 90’s. I will continue the series with my next
post so don’t think that I have finished with that topic. I am also
going to refrain from commenting on the monumental sale of the Francis
Bacon painting as there are so many different people making so many
different (read: hasty) assumptions about what the sale of this works
means to the art market that I will be doing a bit more analysis before
I give my two cents worth. Now for today’s post…

As I am sure you are all aware, the market for Indian art has
exploded in recent times with the prices being paid for works by both
contemporary and traditional artists increasing at a rate that is
nothing short of astonishing. The future for Indian art looks extremely
bright especially considering that the Indian art market is still in
it’s infancy and has enormous room for growth. As an art investor and I
am always looking for opportunities to invest in emerging markets such
as Indian art. I have been looking for an Indian artwork to invest in
for quite a while but have struggled to find anything that wasn’t
either ridiculously expensive, not investment quality or too difficult
to purchase from Australia.

After spending many hours scouring magazines and websites in a
search for a gallery that would have what I was after I came across
Saffron Art (http://www.saffronart.com)
which has become the top source of Indian art. I spent many more hours
sifting through the 900 or so artists whose work is sold on the site in
an effort to find an artist who had the right mix of career achievement
and future potential. Eventually I came across a limited edition print
that caught eye which was by an artist by the name of Manjunath Kamath.
On further examination I discovered that Kamath has recently had a
series of sell-out shows and, according to artprice.com, has had two
works sell at auction for well above the estimate. The first work sold
at auction was “Character in my Grandfather’s Story” which had an
estimate of US$9500-US$14,000 but sold for $54,012 and the second work
was “Teeth Politics” which had an estimate of US$11,700-$13,300 but
sold for $52,700. At this point I knew that I had stumbled upon a real
gem and purchased the limited edition print, which I am sure will
increase in value significantly in the near future if the current
exposure Kamath is receiving is anything to go by.

Born in 1972 in Mangalore, Manjunath obtained his BFA in Sculpture
from Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, Mysore in 1989-94 and was
the 2002 artist in Residence at the School of Art and Design of Wales
Institute in Cardiff, UK. Kamath has had several solo shows both in
India and internationally and his works are in prominent collections in
India and abroad.

image: “Teeth Politics” by Manjunath Kamath

For more information on Manjunath Kamath see:

http://www.artconcerns.net/2006/html/closeup_manjunathKamath.htm

http://www.mattersofart.com/artistofm3.html

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com,
writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for
Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.