Opinion
Don't Just Invest, Collect Art
by Shylashri Shankar
There really
is no such thing as art, there are only artists, said Gombrich in his
seminal work, "The Story of Art". Artists "are favored with the
wonderful gift of balancing shapes and colors till they are 'right', and
rarer still, who possess that integrity of character which never rests
content with half-solutions but is ready to forgo all easy effects, all
superficial success for the toil and agony of sincere work," he wrote.
But in an era where art funds are booming, and artists can command
astronomical prices, are we seeing more and more artists content with
half-solutions?
Dealers and investors have started telling the artist what they want,
much like going to one's tailor and pointing out the way one wants a
dress to be made. Established artists like Anjolie Ela Menon say art
today has become a commodity - artists are more conscious of their image
and create art for commercial reasons rather than for art's sake.
Commercialization, it is argued, creates an artist who paints to please
the market rather than creating that special quality and character in
his/her work. The dynamic quality of art as a response to the spirit of
our times is lost. Is that true?
What is this commodification? By commodification, they mean that the
artist is not free to pursue her goal but is shackled to market forces.
High prices are one indication. M.F. Husain who sold for $16,000 in 2000
now sells for more than a million dollars.
The fault, art gallery owners claim, lies with artists who hike their
prices after one sale. I bought a vivid Chennai cityscape by a young
artist from a gallery. A couple of months later, I checked whether they
had any more. Mayur, the manager, said that the artist came back and
quoted a "ridiculous" price (three times what I'd paid) for his new
paintings because he felt that his art was very popular - all because
he'd managed to sell the first lot quickly. Others allege that art
galleries and funds rig the prices of artists. The truth probably
contains a bit of both.
Is art really commodified? First, how do we know that art has been
commodified if there is no agreement on whether there is such a thing as
art? John Ruskin in "The Elements of Drawing" (1857) said all great art
was delicate.
But each person may have a different and idiosyncratic view of what
delicacy is. A painting is not like a stock. We cannot determine the
fundamental worth of a piece of art. Nassim Taleb's random effect works
for art as well.
Second, even if art has become a high return investment, it does not
necessarily mean that the nature of the work is suspect. In some sense,
art has always been an investment - sometimes fetching minimal returns
(1.6 per cent according to one quixotic economist) and during a 'bubble'
phenomenal ones.
In India, we've seen a bull run in the art market in the last three
years. A top artist like Tyeb Mehta, M.F. Husain or Souza has given a 35
percent return on the investment.
And if a star artist dies, you've hit the jackpot. The prices of an
Adimoolan abstract tripled after his death. Not surprisingly, the art
market has become a place to invest and park one's money in funds
introduced by Osian, Edelweiss, and Copal.
In India, some 3,000 or so people invest about Rs.2 million per year in
art. With over 200,000 painters and sculptors, the public certainly has
a lot of choice. The demand is so high that at a recent exhibition, one
painting had the sign 'wet paint'.
Art auction sites like Saffronart have helped fuel demand since you can
sit in your home, type in your credit card details, and just click on
the picture. But stars like Akbar Padamsee, Rameshwar Broota and
Jehangir Sabvala still evoke a response from us that transcends any
commercial value.
The wealthy aristocratic collector of yesteryears may have been joined
by the hoi polloi of stockbrokers, professionals and businessmen, but
the transformation of a painting into an "asset class" like a share or
gold does not necessarily mean that the painting has lost its spirit.
Investors can also be collectors.
Third, the commodification argument seems to assume that during a rise
in prices, the artist's spirit is sacrificed at the altar of money. So
what happens during a slump?
Commodification can fluctuate. The entry of art funds and ordinary
investors may have increased the prices, taking it beyond the wallet of
a collector, but this is not true during a slump.
Just as in the West, which has seen a rise and fall of art prices (the
prices of impressionists have declined precipitously from their highs in
the 1990s), the art market in India will also experience a downturn. The
effects of the sub-prime crisis and the recession in the US will be felt
in the art market, argue some analysts who expect the prices to halve.
Others disagree and say that art and wine offer safe havens in uncertain
times.
If commodification means that the artist settles for half-solutions, and
the investor does not become a collector, then the concerns are valid.
Then we lose the process whereby the viewer or buyer as collector sees,
touches, and feels the idea that the artist struggles with in a
painting.
Krishen Khanna rightly says that to be a collector, you must first fall
in love with art. "I would even say, you must resist buying it in the
first instance. Let it follow you, tease you, and cajole your senses so
much that you start loving it. Then you can resist no more and you will
start feeling obsessed by it. Acquisition, then, happens naturally. And
because you love it so much, you will also find it difficult to part
with it."
As an investor in an art fund, one could just as well be buying a
reliance or HDFC share - one neither sees the object nor hangs it in
one's house. Art, when treated as a mere investment, becomes like lobby
music - repetitive, monotonous, soulless. Ultimately all suffer - the
artist, the work, and the collector. To reclaim the spirit of art, one
cannot just be an investor.
(Shylashri Shankar can be contacted at shylashri@gmail.com)
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There really
is no such thing as art, there are only artists, said Gombrich in his
seminal work, "The Story of Art". Artists "are favored with the
wonderful gift of balancing shapes and colors till they are 'right', and
rarer still, who possess that integrity of character which never rests
content with half-solutions but is ready to forgo all easy effects, all
superficial success for the toil and agony of sincere work," he wrote.