First New York solo show for Sopheap Pich, Cambodia’s most prominent contemporary artist

SOUTHEAST ASIAN CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE

On November 12th, Tyler Rollins Fine Art (TRFA) introduced another Southeast Asian artist to the New York art scene. Bamboo sculptor Sopheap Pich’s first solo exhibition in New York will run until January 9th 2009, ending the Fall exhibition season.

RAFT, 2009 BAMBOO, RATTAN, WOOD, WIRE, METAL BOLTS 89 X 177 X 52 IN.

According to TRFA, Pich has been very active on the international stage in recent years and is now considered to be Cambodia’s most prominent contemporary artist. In addition, Pich’s artwork is currently part of the 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale ending on November 23rd.

"THE PULSE WITHIN" INSTALLATION VIEW

“Issues of time, memory, and the body are integral to Pich’s work. For this exhibition, he has created a dynamic group of sculptural forms derived from the internal organs of the human body, such as the heart, lungs, and intestines. These function as visceral reminders of the past and of the intimate, physical connections between human beings” – quoting TRFA’s website

Related Links and Posts:

• Visit Sopheap Pich’s website at http://sopheappich.com
• 5 80s born contemporary Cambodian artists featured in historic show Forever Until Now – March 2009
• 5 60s and 70s born contemporary Cambodian artists in documentary show Forever Until Now- March 2009
• Historic show documents development of Cambodian art- Forever Until Now – March 2009
• World first show of Japanese sculpture in bamboo New York – Sep 2008

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more market and auction house news

SF/KCE

Is Singapore threatening Hong Kong as next Asian art mecca? Wall Street Journal

SINGAPORE AND HONG KONG’S COMPETING ART MARKET

Singapore’s art scene has grown rapidly since its 1989 government mandate to recognize the “importance of culture and the art.” Thriving to a point that, according to The Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong–Asia’s epicenter of art–is beginning to take its competitor seriously.

Hong Kong’s challenging art scene

Today’s numbers would suggest that Hong Kong has nothing to worry about for competition.  Hong Kong is currently the third-largest auction market in the world with both Christie’s and Sotheby’s in its territory, and has set aside close to US$3 billion in order to create a much needed world class arts and culture development known as West Kowloon Cultural District. The project, however, has been slow to start and left many frustrated.

“The Hong Kong government first hit upon the idea in 1998 of building an integrated arts and culture neighborhood on 40 hectares of reclaimed land in the West Kowloon district. After many fits and starts, planning for the project recently picked up some momentum…Nevertheless, even if it all goes as planned, the first phase won’t be open until 2016.”

One of the proposed models for the West Kowoon Cultural Centre

The West Kowloon project has been “frustrating and painful,” says Asia Art Archive’s Ms. Hsu, who is also on the advisory panel for the museum at the new West Kowloon development. “For the public it has looked like the government is stalling, but it gives me a lot of hope. The government is very concerned about getting it right.’”

Singapore makes its move

The time spent behind making Hong Kong’s “necessary cultural move” may eventually result in Singapore gaining ground in the market by the country’s pushing ahead with so many art-hub projects of their own.

“It [Singapore] invested more than US$1 billion in infrastructure, including several museums and a 4,000-seat complex of theaters, studios and concert halls called the Esplanade, which opened in 2002, and spiced up its arts programming with diversity and a regional flavor.”

The Esplanade, Singapore

The benefits of Singapore’s art initiatives are already apparent. According to Singapore’s National Arts Council “between 1997 and 2007, the ‘vibrancy’ of the local art scene, measured by the number of performances and exhibition days, quadruped to more than 26,000.”

However, Singapore is still missing a key ingredient to perhaps prosper further: a big art-auction market like Hong Kong’s.

“Some smaller art-auction houses hold sales in Singapore, but the big ones — Christie’s and Sotheby’s — have pulled out and moved their Southeast Asian art auctions to Hong Kong, the former British colony that is home to seven million people and became a Chinese territory in 1997.”

For a city, having the ingredients for a thriving art market creates a virtuous circle. The powerful marketing machines of the big auction houses, including public previews of coming sales, raises awareness and appreciation of art in the community. All this encourages local artists to create more art. And that momentum, in turn, contributes to the development of a city’s broader cultural scene, including music, theater and design.”

Singapore looks ahead

The relationship between big art-auction markets and a thriving art scene can be so entangled that it would appear difficult to navigate a new course in order to adequately compete. Singapore, it seems, is trying anyways.

“Undaunted, Singapore is diligently pushing ahead and has opened several museums and other arts venues while Hong Kong has dithered on the construction of West Kowloon. Christie’s also recently picked Singapore to be the site of a global fine-arts storage facility to open in a duty-free zone in January.”

Related Posts

• ARTSingapore 2009 Fair-new photography fair, high value sales and gallerists pick top fairs in Asia today- October 2009
• New auction houses with new strategies open in Singapore art market – October 2009
• Liquidity propels prices, Chinese Political Pop is back- Sothebys Contemporary Asian Art Auction 2009 Hong Kong- October 2009

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia

RM/KCE

Contemporary art market in Asia now bigger than US for first time says Artprice

ASIAN ART MARKET

Visitors enter a Sotheby's auction room in Hong Kong for a sale of modern and contemporary art on October 6, 2008.

For the first time ever, the total auction revenue from “contemporary art in Asia” is greater than the total of the United States artprice reports. The statistics are collected from a 12-month period spanning from July 2008 to June 2009. Asia generated €130 million versus the United States’ €123 million. China is the highest gainer out of this trend, having generated €95 million from contemporary art during the same period.  According to the report, this means China is continuing to “hold on to its third place global geographical art auction revenue ranking.”

The establishment of foreign auction houses such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonhams in Hong Kong, in combination with the financial strength of Hong Kong and Shanghai are to be accredited for China’s position. For those who are looking to begin collecting Asian art, this does not mean that the price of contemporary Chinese art is back up to its sky-high prices of a couple of years ago. Artprice’s report tell us that in the first half of 2008 the average price of contemporary works sold in China was $65,500, however, in the first half of 2009, this average dropped to $26,800.

Related posts:

• Liquidity propels prices, Chinese Political Pop is back- Sotheby’s Contemporary Asian Art Auction 2009 Hong Kong- October 2009
• Trends and opportunities in the contemporary photography market- October 2009
• Newslink round up Art Basel 2009- Indian, Japanese artists dominate coverage of Asians- June 2009

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more market and auction house news

RM/KCE

Art in storage, at fairs and sales – is it getting harder to insure?

ART FAIR INSURANCE

Last week, The Art Newspaper posted an interesting report that claimed that art is getting harder to insure. According to their source, Richard Northcott, executive director of the art, jewellery and private client division at Heath Lambert Group (London), firms that protect specialist fine art insurers are becoming cautious of insuring a large amount of art kept in one place at the same time, such as in storage warehouses and exhibitions. The article explains why:

“For a long time nobody in the insurance world was monitoring the cumulative value of art shown at fairs or kept in storage,” explains Northcott. “But in the last two or three years the industry has become a lot more sophisticated and a lot more aware of the issue.”

This is partly owing to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which made insurers aware that a single catastrophe could wipe out an entire art fair or storage facility, and partly owing to recent developments in software that have made it much easier for re-insurers and specialist fine art insurers to track the location of the thousands of policies they have underwritten at any one time.

At Art 40 Basel in June, “there were already murmurs of a problem,” Northcott says.

“There is a limit to the insurance market’s capacity for the cumulative value of policies for a single event like an art fair,” says Northcott. This stands at around $2bn; the insurance value of art at Frieze this year is much lower as the downturn in the contemporary market has led to declining prices, and the many younger galleries exhibiting for the first time are offering less expensive, emerging artists. But he believes that as the art market recovers, “all major art fairs will come under scrutiny by the industry”.

RM/KE

Related posts

• New auction houses with new strategies open in Singapore Oct 09
• Do you rank high on Google? Why most art dealers don’t, why they should and what to do about it Jul 09
• More art, better art, riskier art at ArtHK 09 – May 09
• Who are the top artists at art fairs? Mar 09

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for the latest contemorary art news and trends

Newslink roundup Hong Kong art fair – Art HK 09

  

 

Mu Boyan, Nude No 2

HONG KONG ART FAIR NEWS

Flu Season – Artforum – 24 May 09 – Must read - This gossip column-style drily written piece, complete with photos of Asian art scene-shapers, takes a comprehensive look at most aspects of the fair: management (white plastic and undrinkable wine), gallery sales (“Art HK winners: major Western galleries, local Hong Kong galleries. Big losers: major mainland galleries.”), the parties (one a victim of its own exclusivity) and the panels (a big thumbs up).  Not much written about the art itself though.

Art market reporting is notoriously conflict-ridden. Business class tickets and VIP jollies for journalists are not unknown and big ad bucks in harsh economic times also make a potent lure for bias. There is not much evidence of (or opportunity for) independent research: most of the hard data about sales and visitor numbers comes from galleries and event promoters who have an inherent commercial conflict.

Now that the ‘blog reader beware’ warning is done with, grab a handful of salt and enjoy the read.

There is some interesting coverage of lesser known Asian-based artists by the New York Times and read (the more honest??) comments by the Asian galleries about sales which are at odds with those of the Western galleries – this is covered in several of the pieces. Overall the reviews are mostly positive (of course) but for what it is worth we thought both the art and the  fair management were excellent in this second edition of the show.

 

 

Art fair saw 31% rise in visitors and several major sales - South China Morning Post – May 20 09 – Gives details of visitor numbers (sourced from the fair managers) and specific big sales claimed by Western galleries and Western artists. A Korean gallery reported few sales.

An artistic quest in high gear – International Herald Tribune / New York Times – May 20 09 – Must read - Interesting piece with a focus on the art on display, with a refreshing emphasis on lesser known Asian artists such as Konstantin Bessmertny, a Russian artist based in Macau. Several images.

More art, better art, riskier art at Art HK 09 – Art Radar Asia – May 19 09 – Report on visitor opinions of the fair this year, gallery sales (weak for lesser known and Asian galleries), the management of the fair (better) and quality of the art.

Artist makes sure fair goes with a bang – South China Morning Post – May 20 09 – Short piece about avant-garde artist Chow Chun-Fai’s 2 performance pieces hosted by Shanghai Tang.

Art HK 09 -  George Chen – May 17 09 - Set of photos on Flickr

Asian auction houses starting to come of age – South China Morning Post – May 17 09 – Brief piece about auctions staged to coincide with the Hong Kong art fair (Est-ouest Auctions and the inaugural Asian Auction Week – a joint auction by Korea’s K Auction, Japan’s Shinwa, Kingsley’s from Taipei and Larasati from Singapore).

The second edition – Financial Times – May 16 09 – Describes art on sale and sold half way through sale.

Hong Kong Art Fair – Art World – June/July 09 – promotional blurb with a list of Australian galleries

Solid start to Hong Kong art fair despite downturn – Reuters – May 16 09 – Brief report on ‘notable sales’ in fair’s first days - This Uk edition focuses on sales (at the top end with values at tens and hundreds of thousands US$ per piece) of Western artists by top London and New York galleries including Damien Hirst, Gilbert and George, Julian Opie.

Opening HK art fair – Arrested Motion blog - May ? 09 – More than 80 images of works on show at the fair - Unfortunately not tagged but it gives a flavour of what exhibitors have brought.

Art HK 09: Hong Kong International Art Fair has a good start – Artdaily -  May 15 09 - List of artworks sold on first day – Reports ‘robust sales’ and a ‘heady atmosphere of excitement’. Sales by Damien Hirst, Gilbert and George, Kohei Nawa, Fang Shao Hua, Ron Arad.

Hong Kong Art Fair Part 11 – Illustrator James Feldman blog – May 15 09 – Acerbic blog piece about weak and strong art at the fair – Baselitz and Schnabel stand out against bloated ‘reverse engineered Botero’ sculptures. Hong Art Fair Part 1 drily discusses the pecking order of tickets – ‘I have a pink ticket and a black ticket and I can’t work out which is more exclusive’.

Tennis art at the Hong Kong International Art Fair – NY Times Globespotters – May 14 09 – Short feature about live demonstration of Martina Navratilova creating one of her tennis ball paintings -  She has been making these with fellow Czech and artist Juro Kralik since 2000 but has only recently started to sell the works.

Strange Hong Kong art fair – Detroit Free Press – May 13 2009 - A set of 6 images, mostly sculptures at the fair and the concurrent Seoul Auction. Artists Mu Boyan, Yi hwan Kwon, Yayoi Kusama, Damien Hirst, Lin Yilin.

Insider Art Fair – Artinfo – May 13 2009 – Short list of artists’ works and prices brought to the fair by leading galleries.

 Prefair coverage

Much of the prefair coverage republishes the press release or gives other repetitive promotional content. A couple of links covering the basics are given here and a more complete list can be found on the Hong Kong art fair site.

Magnus Renfrew on ArtHK09 - Artinfo – May 12 2009 – Pre-fair interview with director Magnus Renfrew. Great questions, predictable answers. Content is mainly promotional but does cover failure to get sponsorship this year. Claims Hong Kong is superior location in Asia for art fair: well-positioned geographically to tap mature collector groups in Taiwan and South Korea as well as latent potential of future Chinese market; tax benefits.  Gallery mix is 65% Asian, 35% international. MR also claims that HK art fair is more regional than competing fairs.

Hong Kong’s contemporary art fair – Financial Times – May 9 2009 – A somewhat promotional pre-fair piece which lists participant galleries and side events.  Based on a news angle which suggests Hong Kong (and environs) is a rising star in Asian art scene. Evidence for its growing importance as a cultural hub is given as 1) Guangzhou Triennial “widely considered China’s most important art event” 2) last year’s budget approval by HK government for the development of West Kowloon cultural district –  a 40 hectare site for the arts 3) Hong Kong has become third largest art market by auction sales in world 4) last year’s introduction of ArtHK, Hong Kong art fair.

 Related posts:

• Art Dubai who sold what to whom? 15 galleries talk to Art Radar – Mar 2009
• Who are the top artists at art fairs? – Mar 2009
• Arco Madrid art fair newslink round up – Feb 2009
• Which are the top 10 international contemporary art fairs? - Jan 09

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for up to date news about fairs and events

Russian new media artists at MOMA Moscow where interest in electronic art grows

 

 

SURVEY NEW MEDIA ART RUSSIAN ARTISTS to 19 October 2008

CRITI-POP

Dates: September 19 – October 19, 2008
Location: Moscow Museum of Modern Art at Ermolaevsky lane, 17 (floors 2-5)

“It seems incredible, but interactive and communicative art in Russia is practiced only by Chernyshev, Shulgin and Efimov, working together or individually” says curator and gallerist Elena Selina. ”Recently, interest in new media art has increased in Moscow. Not only professionals, but also collectors and the public, have overcome inner barriers that prevented (their acceptance) of the new media language”.

Presented by the Moscow Department of Culture, Russian Acacademy of Arts, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art with XL Gallery, the CRITI-POP exhibition showcases three artists, two creative groups, forty works and plenty of themes including information overflow, reconstruction of identity, genetic pop-engineering, the poetry of stock-exchange deals and news broadcasts, aesthetics of data transmission and science art.

Interactive installations by Vladislav Efimov and Aristarkh Chernyshev, who worked together from 1996 to 2005, bring us art that deals with genetic engineering, statistical modeling of processes, computer games and robotics. The viewer becomes a hero of the work — a colleague of an insane scientist modeling DNA, a creator of 3-D avatars, a conqueror of robots or a terminator hunting for artists.

Electroboutique  (Aristarkh Chernyshev and Alexei Shulgin since 2003) is a unique art group that unites artists, developers of electronics, programmers and designers. Using techniques taken from social psychology and perception theory, the artists transmit their critical message directly into the unconscious of the viewers and entertain them with bright colors and garish forms. In his solo projects, Aristarkh Chernyshev creates art from information streams like TV-channels, Internet-news or stock-exchange tapes while the solo work of Alexei Shulgin  looks at our addiction to technologies and gives variants of creative rescue. One of the historic exhibits is a legendary rock band 386 DX, made of an outdated computer playing ever-young hits of British-American and Russian rock.

Related:

• Website of Moscow Museum of Modern Art
• More stories about contemporary Russian art
• More on new media art in Asia
• Other significant museum shows of Asian artists
• Latest events on now and events coming

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia

Iranian art market booms for younger artists – Artprice

Farhad Moshiri Eshgh

 

 

IRANIAN ART MARKET

“The vitality of the Middle-Eastern market is giving a number of young Iranian artists a healthy price index on the secondary art market” says Artprice’s online magazine Art Market Insight.

In October 2007, at only his second auction appearance, Christie’s Dubai generated a bid of $50,000 for a painting by Afshin PIRHASHEMI (born 1974) entitled Those Four Days.  Just a month earlier in Paris, Artcurial sold his painting Memory for 6,000 euros and by  April 2008 his triptych ’Lonely’ created in 2005 commanded an astounding price of $110,000 at Christie’s in Dubai.

The work of two young Iranian women are beginning to command attention: Shirin ALIABADI and Shadi GHADIRIAN (born in 1973 and 1974 respectively) create works inspired by the challenges facing women. Shadi Ghadirian’s photos show veiled women with contemporary objects and her most famous piece, Stereo, sold for £9,000 (over $18,000) in 2007 at Sotheby’s in London.

Stimulated by developments in the art market infrastucture including the introduction of art fair, Art Dubai in 2007 and the appearance of auction houses (Christies 2006, Bonhams 2008), contemporary artists from Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon and Iran have seen increasing attention and price inflation.

'Iranian Contemporary Art' by Rose Issa - click to buy book

Shirin Neshat

and Farhad Moshiri are two artists who are now well known on the international art scene. Farhad Moshiri became the highest selling Iranian artist when his 2 metre high bronze work ‘The Wall (Oh Persepolis)’ fetched no less than $2.5 million at Christies Dubai in April 2008 trouncing its estimate of $400,000-600,000. Farhah Moshiri is best known for his jewel art pieces in which he covers objects or makes images with fine layers of gold or Swarowski crystals.

See (in new window)

• more art market news
• full story on Artprice site
• more Iranian art stories
• women and gender posts

Contemporary art of China, Korea, Japan course 3 days SOAS London November 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHORT COURSE CONTEMPORARY ART ASIA 3-5 November 2008 SOAS, School of African and Oriental Studies part of the University of London holds a 3 day course on contemporary art of China Japan and Korea.

• Lectures and seminars by leading experts, curators and well-known practising artists
• Visits to museums, galleries and auction houses, including unique access to museum reserve collections
• Interactive discussion with world renowned academics, artists and curators

Details are available from Dr Heather Elgood on  he2@soas.ac.uk

For more from SOAS website http://www.soas.ac.uk/programmes/prog43129.php

Fresh evidence contemporary art price rise is structural says FT

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Financial Times

MARKET NEW BUYERS MORE BUYERS The huge wealth from oil and mining in the Middle East and Russia is flowing into fine art, with a rush of new buyers entering a market that was already booming. 

The arrival of Russian, Middle Eastern and emerging market collectors has given fresh evidence to those who believe that the powerful rise in the price of artworks is structural rather than cyclical – reflecting a long-term shift to a truly global market supported by growing numbers of millionaires and billionaires.

 

Last high 1990 surpassed in 2007

Last year, the art market – as measured by proceeds for the top 100 artists sold at auction – in nominal terms surpassed the previous high set in 1990, according to data from Art Market Report. After a decade in the doldrums the market recovered sharply in 2003-04 and has been on the upswing ever since. The rise in the contemporary market has been especially strong, with prices up by 300 per cent in the past three years, according to Art Market Report’s Contemporary Art 100 index.

 

Doomsayers wrong so far

Doom sayers have been predicting a fall in art prices for the past two years. The high level of nervousness about the market was revealed last November, when shares in Sotheby’s plummeted 28 per cent in a day. The reason? The auction house had failed to sell a work by Van Gogh at its sale the night before. The share price has not recovered.

Many respected dealers and collectors believe the market has reached its peak. Eli Broad, the Los Angeles-based billionaire collector, has said several times that he does not believe prices will continue to rise.

One bearish New York-based dealer says: “Mark my words, the Russians will turn out to be the Japanese of the early 21st century.” During the last art market peak, Japanese property developers were famously among the biggest buyers, snapping up Impressionist works – they were especially fond of Van Gogh – only to offload them at much lower prices just a few years later when the Tokyo asset bubble burst.

 

Customer base from more countries now

The underlying support for today’s art market does appear to be much more broadly based. 

Sotheby’s points out that five years ago, its buyers who spent more than $500,000 on an artwork came from 26 countries. Today, buyers spending that level or more come from 58 countries. Last year, 21 per cent of buyers at its sales were new, the auction house says. Since few buy at auction only once, that means an influx of customers. Helena Newman, vice-chair of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s, says: “The whole make-up of buyers has changed beyond recognition from 10 years ago. Now we have a far bigger global reach. We are also seeing far greater demand for the very best works. Our big challenge remains the sourcing of works.”

Simon de Pury, who heads the Phillips de Pury auction house, echoes that trend, saying: “Five years ago, the market was concentrated in western European and American collectors, a small group of art cognoscenti. The Contemporary market was dominated by three countries – the US, the UK and Germany. Now we can see the change just in our website: the hits are coming from Brazil, Turkey, China, India, Indonesia, Korea.”

 

Change accelerated 2 years ago

Mr de Pury says the change accelerated two years ago. He predicts that Contemporary art will continue to grow in buyer popularity, in part because the sheer number of buyers means that demand for works from previous eras cannot be met. “It is a question of availability. If you have unlimited money, you can no longer buy the best Old Masters collection in the world. But you can buy the best collection of living artists. For that reason Contemporary art will be the most significant market for the next 20 years.”

 

New museums adding to demand

He adds: “In China, every new [top-end] real estate complex being built has an art museum. All these spaces need to be filled and that will keep demand high.”

Most Middle Eastern nations are likewise building art museums, with both a Guggenheim and a Louvre destined for Abu Dhabi, for example. These museums will start accumulating works to fill their vast spaces later this year. In the US, the home of most of the world’s billionaires, there is a growing trend for rich art-lovers to build their own museums rather than donate works to existing museums as used to be the practice.

 

More millionaires 

There are far more rich people in the world and they are simply far more likely to buy artworks. The number of millionaires in Brazil, Russia, India and China grew by 19 per cent last year, according to the World Wealth Report, released this week by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. The top 10 collectors in the world now include Victor Pinchuk, a Ukrainian steel billionaire, Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecommunications tycoon, and Qatar’s Sheik al-Thani, according to ARTnews magazine, which this week released its annual list of big spenders.

Art is also seen as a socially desirable channel for the wealth resulting from the 20-year growth in financial services. US hedge fund managers such as Steve Cohen have emerged as big Contemporary collectors. Ben Crawford, the chief marketing officer of MutualArt.com, says: “It starts with the wealthy and then there is a trickle-down effect. Look at the beginning of the century – who bought designer clothes? Tiny numbers of high-society people – but once they became available to more and more people, the buyers didn’t go back. The art buyers won’t go back to putting Star Wars posters on their walls.”

Image details: Eli Broad, art collector

See:

• Billionaires from Russia Middle East new in top 10 art collectors 
• How Russians, Asians are changing the art market

Subscribe now to Art Radar Asia

Indian modern art 1905 – 2005 at Philadelphia Museum of Art

USA EXHIBITION INDIAN ART UNTIL DECEMBER 7 2008 Multiple Modernities: India, 1905-2005 (on view at Philadelphia Museum of Art June 14 – Dec. 7, 2008  consists of more than 25 drawings, prints and watercolor paintings produced by South Asian artists before and after the region’s independence and subsequent partition into India and Pakistan.

The exhibition illustrates the range of artistic traditions and experiments in visual culture that emerged as South Asia transformed from a British colony to independent nation-states to a world economic power.

Many of South Asia’s preeminent artists of the past century are represented. Jamini Roy (1887-1972), for example, looked toward regional eastern Indian folk traditions for his simplified forms and bold, flat colors.

One of the most significant individuals in the fight for cultural regeneration was Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), who collaborated with a group of artists and intellectuals to launch what has been called the “Bengal Renaissance.” A writer, educator, and Asia’s first Nobel laureate (Literature, 1913), Tagore did not focus on visual art until he was well into his 60’s. The exhibition includes a rare and never-before-displayed group of seven of his imaginative and enigmatic drawings and paintings from the Museum’s collection.

The Progressive Artists Group in Bombay, formed in 1948 and disbanded a few years later, searched for their individual artistic voices, rather than solely a national vision. Its members and associates included some of the major artists who shaped modern India, such as F.N. Souza, M.F. Hussain, and Tyeb Mehta, all represented in this exhibition.

During the 1960s and 70s, a younger generation modeled in part on the Progressives renewed their search to infuse art with powerful individuality. Their variety of voices is evident in works including Bhupen Khakhar’s Shame (after 1983) and Gieve Patel’s Dead Politician (1972).

Representing the latter half of the 20th century a recently acquired collage-lithograph by Atul Dodiya is on show. Based on a minor episode in the great Hindu epic Ramayana, Sabari with her birds (2005) explores the power of faith through the tale of a tribal woman who spends her life alone in the forest preparing to encounter God. The work is part of a series inspired by three paintings by Indian artist Nandalal Bose (1882-1966), whose retrospective will be on display concurrently in the Museum.

“ Multiple Modernities offers an unusual opportunity to appreciate the breadth of South Asian art from the 20th century, and gives insights into the challenges that artists confronted in developing both a national identity and authentic personal voices,” Darielle Mason, the Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art, said.

http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/321.html 
Source: www.theartwolf.com
Image details: Atul Dodiya Sabari with her Birds 2005