New Galleries Power a Shift in India's Art Scene

Newer galleries are showcasing personal collections and fostering a dialogue among collectors and artists

- Abhilasha Ojha

There's a quiet yet determined shift in the Indian art market landscape. Newer art galleries are whetting the appetite of collectors, both seasoned and novice, as interest continues to evolve. Many of these galleries showcase the personal collections of longtime art collectors. For some, the galleries represent a chance to give their artworks a home. For others, it's a way to tap into a growing fraternity that's interested in acquiring art.

HOMES FOR ART COLLECTIONS
In Ashish Thapar's art gallery, which opened earlier this year in the National Capital Region (close to KNMA's mammoth art space slated to open sometime next year), the idea was to give center stage to lesser-known but significant modernists of India, and more obscure works from leading modernists.

In Thapar's view, it's not enough to only talk about M.F. Husain's horses, F.N. Souza's nudes, or S.H. Raza's bindu series. "We should talk about Husain's Blue period and Raza's White period when the artists were evolving in their own right," says the graphic designer, curator and art collector. Thapar Art Gallery's inaugural exhibition in February, Celebrating the Modernists of Indian Art, was a showcase of some of the lesser-known works of the progressives along with other artists such as Sakti Burman, Ramkinkar Baij, Himmat Shah, G.R. Santosh, Bimal Das Gupta, Sadanand Bakre, Haku Shah, Abdul Aziz Raiba, B. Prabha, B. Vithal, Laxma Goud, Sankho Chaudhuri and Abdulrahim Appabhai Almelkar.

While a majority of the paintings on display are owned by Thapar, many of them are on sale. He's already working on the estates of two lesser-known Indian modernists, besides gearing up for forthcoming shows in his gallery.