The ever fluctuating art mart

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In the last two years, the one thing that has moved artists, art buyers, gallerywallas, art investors and all those who had nothing to do with art, is the price of art. However, there are no prizes for guessing why, far more than the process of creating, and appreciating the art, importance was given to the galloping prices and then the crashing prices.
The ones, who had made their mega bucks when the sun was shining brightly on palettes and canvases, changed their lifestyles by buying palatial houses with EMIs to boot. However, they looked on in utter disbelief and dismay as the art market crashed. But now that the both the tides of steep prices and crashed prices have abated, it is time to do a reality check in the strictest sense of the term.
Firstly, the feel good factor was that the art mart spared none. The crazy gallop was reigned in for better control — in horsey terms! The investors didn’t understand that unlike any other share bazaar, the art mart was a totally different ball game. For instance, one share, say of Raymond is like any other, which is not true of art.
Here the subjective factors are manifold. Even a top artist will have inconsistency in works or better or bad periods in his/her creative journey. Size, medium, year, thematic contents, etc, have a bearing on prices of art works. However, the so-called investors were in no mood to this figure out, and even those in the art world who knew better, were not willing to divulge these secrets. A few lone rangers like me who were willing to tell the truth were isolated for trying to throw a spanner in the works.
However, in the current scenario, when the prices are becoming realistic, which is a positive sign, artists or galleries will not be able to outprice any work and sound the death knell for eventual “death” — like a flavour of the month (who usually die a premature death) of artists. Both galleries and artists had raised prices unrealistically and forgot the long-term perspective, as they pushed some mid-level artists to ridiculous levels to price them like masters, which did them in.
Unrealistically, priced artists were more affected. Sales saw a sharp drop where artists pretended to be sold out — they are the ones who had outpriced themselves. Artists who walked the steady tract not only clocked sales in the lowest times, in fact they did better than before, as buyers looked for bargains and with more discerning perspective. Time had come to buy art they genuinely liked and wanted to live with, rather than merely names. So, good, tried and tested artists whose rise may have been slow and steady still remained players. After all, how often does one want to ride a roller coaster?
Meanwhile, art auctions, which are less than two decades old in India, would put a C grade Bollywood movie to shame. These unprofessional auctions would then be the watermark for setting the prices, which were often higher than a gallery price.
Auction catalogues become the reference point for prices. With no historical perspective of art, any work whether worthy of auction or not was thrown into the market. No context, just playing on sentiment.
With the entry of foreign auction houses, auctions became slick, well-managed affairs, and people started getting wiser, not buying garbage in the name of auction. Auction prices became mere indicators of prices and not price setters. My contention is that there should be clarity as to what determines art pricing — why is an artist said to “go” for so much when his work varies? Who then should be the last word on pricing? The answer is not too far to find: If an artist or gallery seeks “X” price for the work and gets it consistently, is what determines pricing. Work varies, so should prices. Size determining factor is ridiculous — are you selling land per sq feet? Do artists think less for a smaller work?
It is my belief that this correction is here to stay, and prices are set to rise again in the near future, but will not gallop in an unbridled manner. Market correction will lead to more rooted and discerning rise by next year, as prices are often cyclical. Till then the smarter buyers will still manage to get bargains and the fence sitters will
cry over missed opportunities!

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist