Art is a personal experience, both for the artist and the viewer. It is a meeting of perspectives, a clashing of worlds that brings either tumult or the calm of Zen. It is also a booming business, beauty created by insanity and introspection of artists, which are sold for millions to collectors and institutions.
Indian art is no exception. Last week, the gorgeous and controversial artist Amrita Sher-Gil, often referred to as India’s Frida Kahlo, whose powerful exploration of feminine sexuality entered the million-dollar club, fetched $2.9 million for a self-portrait. She died when she was 28. Hers is also the third most expensive work of Indian art to be sold at an auction. The first goes to the reflective V S Gaitonde who sold for `23 crore in 2013, followed by S H Raza. The trinity mark the divinity of the Indian art market that has boomed to over `1,000-1,200 crore with paintings comprising 99 per cent of the total works that include sculpture and installations.
According to the authoritative TEFAF Art Market Report, the world art market is around €51 billion. This includes modern art impresarios like Damien Hirst and Bharti Kher, legends like Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Georges-Pierre Seurat. Old masters like Caravaggio, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo mostly are national treasures, with very few held in anonymous private hands and often lent to museums for the viewing pleasure of the public, to share the human heritage of creativity. Lists are always subjective.
It is impossible to include them all, and we have chosen artists who we think are the best. Nowhere else does business and beauty, torment and ecstasy, and passion and calculation exist as in the art market. The pricier the better.