Thursday, April 23, 2009

Top 10 most influential contemporary art collectors - Apollo Magazine

Top 10 most influential contemporary art collectors - Apollo Magazine
Posted by artradar on April 13, 2009
CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTORS
The collectors who really matter to the history of art are not necessarily the very richest or even the most acquisitive says Martin Bailey in Apollo Magazine:
They are those who by their example set standards for others, encourage interest in the art they collect and share their treasures with the public. In short, the collectors of greatest importance are those who wield the greatest influence.
Of APOLLO’S list of the 20 most influential collectors today, 10 collect contemporary work. Here is a list with some brief ntoes. For more information see the full article go to Apollo Top 20 most influential art collectors.
ELI BROAD
Post-war and contemporary Nationality: American Age: 75 Source of wealth: Property and insurance
Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, began to collect modern and contemporary art in the 1970s, and have amassed one of America’s greatest private collections. They have nearly 2,000 pieces.
Broad was also the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. He has given $26m to help build a Zaha Hadid-designed art museum at Michigan State University; building work is due for completion in 2010.
EUGENIO LOPEZ ALONSO
Latin American and international contemporary Nationality: Mexican Age: 40 Source of wealth: Food processing
Eugenio Lopez inherited the Jumex fruit juice business. Although relatively young, he has amassed one of the largest private collections of modern Latin American art. Lopez’s collection comprises 1,500 works, half Latin American and half international.
FRANCOIS PINAULT
Contemporary Art Nationality: French Age: 71 Source of wealth: Luxury goods
Starting by collecting early modernism, Francois Pinault quickly moved into post-war American painting and finally into contemporary art. In 1998 he purchased a controlling share in Christie’s, which puts him in the centre of the art world. Pinault has long wanted to display his collection, now comprising 2,500 works. After scrapping plans for a museum in a former Renault factory on Ile Seguin, in the Seine in western Paris, he took over Palazzo Grassi in Venice, which reopened in 2006. Even more ambitiously, the Francois Pinault Foundation is transforming Venice’s Punta della Dogana (customs building) into a contemporary art centre, which is due to open in June 2009 for the Biennale.
VIKTOR PINCHUK
Contemporary Art Nationality: Ukrainian Age: 47 Source of wealth: Steel
Viktor Pinchuk’s collecting began in the early 1990s with Russian impressionism. He subsequently developed the idea of opening a public display, and turned towards contemporary art, feeling that this would be more popular. In September 2006 the Victor Pinchuk Foundation opened the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, which is one of the largest public galleries for contemporary art in eastern Europe. Owning 300 works, it comprises both Ukrainian and international art. In January Peter Doroshenko became its artistic director (he is an American of Ukrainian background and formerly director of the Baltic in Gateshead, northern England). Among Pinchuk’s recent purchases is Koons’s Hanging Heart, for which he paid $24m.
LEKHA & ANUPAM PODDAR
Indian Art Nationality: Indian Age: unknown; 34 Source of wealth: Paper industry and hotels
Lekha Poddar, from Delhi, began collecting in the late 1970s and her son Anupam in 2000. Together they recently set up the Devi Art Foundation. They now have 7,000 works of Indian art, ranging from tribal to contemporary (with some from neighbouring countries).
DON & MERA RUBELL
Contemporary Art Nationality: American Age: 66; unknown Source of wealth: Inheritance and hotels
Based in Miami Beach, the Rubells began to collect in the 1960s, and after receiving an inheritance in 1989 were able to expand their ambitions, both to build the collection and open it to the public. Their daughter and son, Jennifer and Jason (and Jason’s wife, Michelle), are closely involved, which explains why it is known as the Rubell Family Collection. In 1996 their Contemporary Arts Foundation opened a public space in a former Drug Enforcement Agency warehouse in Wynwood, north Miami, to show a changing selection of works in 27 rooms. The collection now comprises over 5,000 pieces. The Rubells particularly enjoy discovering up-and-coming artists.
CHARLES SAATCHI
Contemporary Art Nationality: British Age: 65 Source of wealth: Advertising
Charles Saatchi is probably Europe’s most powerful collector of contemporary art. With his first wife, Doris Lockhart, he began with American abstraction in the 1970s. In 1985 he opened his first public gallery, in Boundary Road, north London. By the end of the decade he had turned to British artists, later commissioning Hirst’s ‘Shark’ and buying Emin’s ‘Bed’ and the Chapman Brothers’ Hell Having become the leading patron of the Young British Artists (YBAS), he shot to fame with his controversial ‘Sensation’ exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1997, which then toured to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In 2003 his gallery moved from Boundary Road to County Hall, where it remained for two years. His current space is in the King’s Road, Chelsea, in a converted army barracks.
Saatchi not only buys, but also sells, so his collection is constantly evolving. He owns around 3,000 works. Although wanting the public to enjoy his art, he remains a rather private figure.
SAUD AL-THANI–Eclectic, but particularly Islamic and natural history Nationality: Qatari Age 41 Source of wealth: Family wealth
Sheikh Saud al-Thani is a cousin of the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. As chairman of the country’s National Council for Culture, Arts and Heritage, he was responsible for buying for a group of new museums that are being set up in the capital, Doha. However, it has often been unclear whether his purchases were for the national museums or his personal collection. The scope of his purchases is enormous, ranging from antiquities to 20th-century furniture. Money is no problem. Saud al-Thani’s current personal role in collecting is unclear, but other members of the family are voracious buyers.
DAVID THOMSON
19th-century English to contemporary art Nationality: Canadian Age: 51 Source of wealth: Media
David Thomson, the 3rd Lord Thomson, is the son of the media owner Kenneth Thomson, who died in 2006. Kenneth Thomson was a very major donor to the Art Gallery of Ontario, to which he gave 2,000 works in 2002.
GUY ULLENS
Chinese contemporary art Nationality: Belgian Age: 73 Source of wealth: Food processing
Baron Guy Ullens is of Belgian origin, but resident in Switzerland. He began to collect classical Chinese painting while on business trips to China, but in the 1980s, together with his wife, Myriam, he branched out into Chinese contemporary art-famously selling his paintings by Turner to finance his purchases. Today he owns one of the world’s finest collections, with 2,000 works.
In November 2007 Ullens opened a permanent space in a restored military factory in Beijing, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. It has changing displays, with works from the Ullens collection and outside loans (including international art).
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New non-proft museum Devi ground-breaking first for India - NYT - Sep 2008
Billionnaires from Russia, Middle East new in top 10 list of collectors - June 2008 - ArtNews
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Posted in Anupam Poddar, Francois Pinault, Saatchi, Ullens, Viktor Pinchuk Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »
Saatchi back with new gallery, school programme, China show, - Reuters, BBC
Posted by artradar on October 12, 2008
COLLECTOR SHOW CHINESE ART
Influential British art collector Charles Saatchi is back after three years out of the limelight, opening a major new gallery in central London showcasing some of China’s hottest artists reports Reuters. The man who introduced the world to Britart stalwarts like Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin has been largely absent from the art scene since his gallery was forced out of its previous home on the River Thames in 2005. Now he is back with a huge new exhibition space in upmarket Chelsea, where he hopes free entry to the imposing former headquarters of the Duke of York will attract passers by.
Critics have lauded the imposing three-storey building with its glass and white-walled interior, and welcomed back one of contemporary art’s biggest players. But the inaugural show, opening on Thursday, has earned mixed reviews.
“The Revolution Continues: New Art from China” is dedicated to Chinese artists including established stars like Yue Minjun, Zhang Xiaogang and Zeng Fanzhi, whose painting fetched $9.7 million in May, a record for Asian contemporary artwork.
Some critics have categorized the crazed, laughing men of Yue or the gray, stylized portraits of Zhang as repetitive, even “mass production” art.
Generally more popular were the sculptures, particularly an installation piece called “Old Persons Home” by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, involving 13 aging men on wheelchairs moving randomly around a large basement room. Their striking resemblance to late world leaders turns the work into a commentary on the pitfalls of power and conflict. The gallery calls it “a grizzly parody of the U.N. dead.”
But the gallery’s head of development, Rebecca Wilson, said Saatchi’s target audience was less the experts — critics, collectors and curators — and more the general public, most of whom are unfamiliar with contemporary Chinese art. “There was a feeling that all of these artists were suddenly emerging from China, doing very well at auction, there were the Beijing Olympics coming up,” she told Reuters. “There was this kind of convergence of interest in China, so we felt it should be the exhibition that we open with.”
IRAN, IRAQ ART TO COME
Early next year the Saatchi Gallery will put on a show dedicated to contemporary Middle Eastern art, including from Iran and Iraq, by artists never seen in Britain before.
“None of those artists have been seen in this country before and will be very little known elsewhere in the world as well,” said Wilson. “I think Charles has been searching for months to try to find interesting works.”
Saatchi sells some art after an exhibition ends, partly to fund his enterprise. Auction house Phillips de Pury is supporting the gallery to ensure entry will be free.
_____________________________________________________________________________
BBC coverage:
Only free contemporary art museum in world
The BBC reports that the Saatchi gallery claims to be the only completely free entry contemporary art museum of its size in the world. Simon de Pury, of auction house Phillips de Pury & Company, who is sponsoring the exhibition, said they expected “millions” of visitors.
Ground-breaking school education programme to come
The gallery said it was seeking to establish a “ground breaking” education programme “to make contemporary art even more accessible to young people.
“It is anticipated that the facilities that the Saatchi Gallery plans to offer - at the gallery, via its website and the gallery’s own classroom - will ensure that teachers receive the best on-site and outreach support for their students.”
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Artists: Zhang Dali, Zeng Fanzhi, Wang Guangyi, Zheng Guogu, Zhang Haiying, Zhang Hongtu, Zhang Huan, Qiu Je, Xiang Jin, Shi Jinsong, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Li Qing, Wu Shuanzhuan, Shen Shaomin, Li Songsong, Zhan Wang, Liu Wei, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhang Xiaotao, Cang Xin, Shi Xinning, Li Yan, Bai Yiluo, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, Zhang Yuan, Yin Zhaohui, Feng Zhengjie
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Indian collector Sarkar plans new art museum Calcutta - New York Times
Posted by artradar on September 26, 2008
NEW ART MUSEUM PLANNED CALCUTTA
According to the New York Times a new modern art museum is under way in the eastern city of Calcutta. Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architecture firm that built the Tate Modern in London, is designing it. Construction is to start next year, and the museum is to open in late 2013, said Rakhi Sarkar, a collector there and one of the driving forces behind the museum.
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Financial meltdown impact on the art market - Time, Artinfo
Posted by artradar on September 22, 2008
ART MARKET RECESSION
At least for now, the US has managed to avert a complete collapse of the banking system permitting the press breathing space to ponder the potential impact of the financial crisis on businesses and individuals around the world.
How will the art market fare? The views are mixed.
From Indian art galleries to billionaire art collectors noone in the art market will be immune from the fallout claim some observers. Prices will alter, collections will change hands, art businesses will consolidate, change strategy or move. Others point out that art indices such as the Mei Moses index show that art has a low correlation with stock indices. But can you rely on art indices when art as an asset class is so illiquid and non homogenous compared with stocks goes the counterargument. According to Philip Hoffman of the Fine Art Fund a third of investible art assets is in the hands of just 20 or so very wealthy collectors providing some price protection. However others point out that the market is splitting and the upper end may have a different outlook to the lower end.
Time will tell how events will unfold but in the meantime some press sources have started to report stories hinting at what they expect ahead.
Impact on Indian galleries - Time
It is easy to be dazzled and forget for a moment that India’s markets, like those around the globe, are in the throes of financial turmoil. But even here, worries are starting to surface reports Time. Mumbai is India’s financial capital, but it’s also the center of the country’s booming fashion industry and contemporary-arts community. Those three worlds feed each other here, just as they do in London, Tokyo and New York. As the markets plunge - the main Mumbai index, the Sensex, is down 36% since January - many of Mumbai’s wealthy financiers are beginning to spend less in the city’s galleries and luxury boutiques. “I’m extremely worried,” says Jai Bhandarkar, owner of an art gallery in Colaba, one of Mumbai’s toniest neighborhoods. “The spending power of the people who collect art is going to be affected. The art market has already gone down so much.”
The fate of Lehman’s art collection - Artinfo
Artinfo : When Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday, it left out Neuberger Berman, its giant asset management unit and, according to Artnet, one of its “few profit-making divisions in recent months.” The investment bank is now taking bids for the unit - which includes an impressive corporate art collection - with five private equity firms reported as possible buyers: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Hellman & Friedman, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Bain Capital, and CVC Capital Partners.
Neuberger Berman was cofounded in 1939 by Roy Neuberger, whose name also graces the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York, established with the help of Nelson Rockefeller in 1974 so Neuberger could show off his collection. Neuberger Berman has had a fund since 1990 to buy works from “emerging to mid-career artists, with an emphasis on the former,” according to a press release for a 2004 touring show. That exhibition, “Crosscurrents at Century’s End: Selections from the Neuberger Berman Art Collection,” included pieces by such artists as Marlene Dumas, Andreas Gursky, Takashi Murakami, Neo Rauch, and Sam Taylor-Wood.
The firm is now reported to have some 600 works in its collection, which is displayed in its offices worldwide. It remains to be seen whether the new owner will keep the collection intact or sell the pieces off while the art market is strong.
Billionaire art collectors not immune - uTV
It is unlikely that art will retain its value in the current slump, despite the record-breaking Damien Hirst sale earlier this week says UTV Business News. This will come as a shock to Donald and Doris Fisher, the founders of the Gap clothing chain who returned to the Forbes Rich list in joint 377th place - on $1.3bn - thanks to their $1bn art collection which includes pieces by Chuck Close, Richard Serra and Alexander Calder.
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Artist to watch Cao Fei
Posted by artradar on September 16, 2008
ARTIST TO WATCH
As we scan the news every day, some new artists and new trends emerge out of the cloud of informaton bigger bolder and brighter than the rest. This is the first in an occasional series in which we beam in and take an in depth look at one artist or art trend.
CAO FEI
Cao Fei is a female artist who was born in 1978 in Guangzhou China and is now based in Beijing.
What people are saying
Red Mansion Foundation, London: “Cao Fei is no doubt one of the most remarkable and powerful artists of this generation.”
Serpentine Gallery London: “Cao Fei is one of the pre-eminent Chinese artists of her generation”
About the art
Photographs, videos and installations.
Influences include superheros, avatars, electronic entertainment, pop music, TV drama, computer games and new subcultures such as Japanese Manga, American Rap, and Hong Kong films.
Why her work is interesting
Cao Fei fearlessly experiments with new media, in particular virtual media such as Second Life. She is fascinated by the contrast between urban reality and fantasy-perfect etopia and how it is possible to move between the two at the flick of a switch. Her art presents the issues and zeitgeist of her generation.
I am interested in “the premise that people can choose characters that are very different from their real selves. They can use their character to create a “second life,” to change their friends, family, and lifestyle — like switching a TV channel “says Cao Fei in an interview with Artkrush.
“I started to confuse my two lives, and so I compared them. The younger generation, like 15-18 year olds, I don’t think they ask as many of these questions; that kind of lifestyle is their real life — they belong to a technological world — but for my generation, we will always compare virtual and real”
Her work

Cosplayers: King Kong at home
She first attracted international attention in 2004 with COSplayers, a video and photo series about Guangzhou teens dressing up as Japanese manga characters.
At the 52nd Venice Biennale 2007, she premiered China Tracy Pavilion, a project exploring the virtual worlds of Second Life that merged role-playing, ethnographic documentary, and animation.
After discovering Second Life, Fei embarked on a six-month journey through the wonders of the digital realm, as China Tracy, and many came across her through a YouTube stream in which she introduced herself in machinima footage with Chinese subtitles.
According to Fei, all sorts of typical activities occurred during that period: ‘Fly, chat, build, teleport, buy, sex, add friends, snapshot…’

I.Mirror Documentary Video 2007
These experiences were documented and generated the three-part, thirty-minute epic, ‘i.Mirror’ that Fei exhibited at Venice’s Arsenale back garden as well as on YouTube.
A recent project RMB City, an online art community in the virtual world of Second Life is on show at the Serpentine Gallery and on-line.
Institutions and collectors are invited to buy buildings in RMB City and programme events and activities in them. The project is an experiment exploring the creative relationship between real and virtual space.
Career highlights
Cao Fei has exhibited around the world in premier institutions such as Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing, Mori Museum Tokyo, San Francisco Art Instute, Serpentine Gallery and Red Mansion Foundation.
She has been shown at the Venice Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, Taipei Biennial, Biennale of Sydney and her work has been included in important survey exhibitions such as “Between Past and Future - New Photography andVideo from China” Asia Society New York.
Collectors of her work include Guy Ullens, Carnegie Museum of Art, The Israel Museum, Uli Sigg, Guan Yi amongst others.The famous Chinese collector Guan Yi names Cao Fei along with a handful of other artists as an important artist of her generation.

Cao Fei Siemens project
In the Siemens sponsored art project “What are you doing here?”, the artist Cao Fei worked with employees from subsidiary OSRAM China Lighting to turn their individual ideas, hopes and expectations into art.
Auction history
As at September 1 2008, Cao Fei is still much under-appreciated at auction. She has only had 3 photographs at auction, one at China Guardian May 2007 which sold for US$21,890 including premium (over double the estimate) and two at Sotheby’s New York 2007 which were bought in.
Where to buy
Dealers:
The Courtyard Gallery Beijing
Pekin Fine Arts Beijing
Grace Li Zurich
See (in new window)
Cao Fei’s website
Cao Fei’s up to date bio on artfacts.net
Latest price history on artnet artprice findartinfo
more posts on Cao Fei including participation in Mori Art Museum video weekend 2008, Ullens Center show 2008, RMB City at the Serpentine to 2009
Cao Fei excerpt from Robert Adanto documentary video ‘The Rising Tide’ on Saatchi website
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Posted in Acquisitions, Beam, Cartoon, Chinese, Collectors, Manga, Market watch, New Media, Photography, Video, Virtual Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments »
Zhukova, girlfriend of Abramovich opens new 92,000 sf art space in Moscow 2008 - International Herald Tribune
Posted by artradar on August 25, 2008

Daha Zhukova, Abramovich




RUSSIA NEW CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE opens September 2008
Dasha Zhukova is to open a contemporary art space in the Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage, a giant red-brick Constructivist-era landmark near the Olympic Stadium in Moscow. Popular with architects the garage was designed in 1926 by Konstantin Melnikov.
“I thought Moscow should have a space like this for contemporary art,” Zhukova said. “There is a huge thirst for knowledge among the younger generation for contemporary art, but most of them learn about it by going on the Internet.”
Under its new name the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture this 92,000 square foot space will open next month and its first show will be a retrospective of the artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov.
Zhukova herself acknowledges being a relative art neophyte. “I didn’t study art history and don’t remember names of artists,” she said. “But if I like an image, I remember it.”
Born in Moscow in 1981, Zhukova is an only child. Her parents divorced when she was young, and when her mother, a molecular biologist, took a job at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the early 1990s, they moved there. Zhukova spoke not a word of English. But she quickly adjusted, she said, attending schools in Los Angeles and then the University of California, Santa Barbara.
A year ago few people in the art world had heard of her.
Zhukova said she isn’t modeling the Garage Center after any specific museum. “I’m taking different aspects of different institutions that are inspiring influences,” she said.
Besides aid from Abramovich, financing is also coming from other private sources and corporations. Admission will be free.
After the Kabakov exhibition that opens next month, the Garage Center plans to exhibit works from the collection of Christie’s owner, the luxury goods magnate François Pinault, whose foundation is based in the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. Dent-Brocklehurst said she was considering commissioning artists to create site-specific works for the space, analogous to installations in the vast Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern.
Asked if the Garage would have its own collection, Zhukova said that would be many years down the road, if ever.”For now I’m trying to learn as much as I can to make up for my lack of art history,” she said. “The more I read, the more I realize what I don’t know.”
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International Herald Tribune story
Russians changing the art market
Russian artists AES+F getting noticed
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Emerging Pakistani artists getting noticed in India and abroad
Posted by artradar on July 11, 2008

CONTEMPORARY ART PAKISTAN Rashid Rana occupies a unique position among Pakistan’s contemporary artists and has been a hit internationally. Rashid Rana is a star, whether it’s in Lahore, Mumbai or Hong Kong. The Pakistani artist wowed the crowds who flocked to his Mumbai show in November 2007. And he received an equally rapturous response last month at HK 08, the inaugural Hong Kong Art Fair.
The overwhelming response to Rana’s eye-catching work didn’t come as the slightest surprise to two Mumbai art galleries. Chatterjee & Lal and Chemould Prescott Road jointly organised the show of Rana’s digital photo-montages at HK 08 and they were absolutely certain that it would receive critical acclaim. “It was all sold out,” says Mortimer Chatterjee, partner, Chatterjee & Lal.

Artist names attracting attention
Rana occupies a unique position among contemporary Pakistani artists and he has made a huge name for himself internationally. But he isn’t the only artist from across the border who’s attracting the attention of connoisseurs in India. In the last two months, three shows by Pakistani artists like Bani Abidi, Ali Kazim and Muhmmad Zeeshan have been held across Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. And many more are planned in the coming 12 months.

Collector Anupam Poddar buying Pakistani art with plans for show
Or take a look at art collector Anupam Poddar, who has built a sizeable collection of contemporary Pakistani art. His Devi Art Foundation is doing the groundwork for a show in March 2009, which will be curated by Rana.

Indian interest in Pakistani art
“Interest in Pakistani art is increasing in India,” says Peter Nagy of Delhi’s Nature Morte, who held the first solo show of Rana’s work in India and then helped take his work overseas.So, is Pakistani art the next Big Thing in India? Many art experts believe the interest in Pakistani art is only natural. Says Chatterjee: “There are so many lines of inter-connection between the concerns of Pakistani artists and the lives of normal Indians that often the subject matter is entirely relevant to an Indian audience.”There’s also, as Rana says, “a kind of mutual obsession on both sides of the border, fostered by shared histories, the trauma of Partition and the years of hostility and inaccessibility.”

Pakistani art more visible in auctions and fairs
Certainly Pakistani art, like Indian art, is suddenly becoming more visible at international art fairs and auctions. For instance, works by Talha Rathore and Nusra Ali Qureishi sold at auctions held by Christie’s and Saffronart recently.

Bani Abidi - female video artist
For Bangalore-based GALLERYSKE’s founder, Sunitha Kumar Emmart who had been following Pakistani video artist Bani Abidi’s work, then, art fairs provided an opportunity to view the work of the Pakistani artist at first-hand. That led to a show by Abidi recently. “Regardless of nationality or gender, we have been interested in Bani’s work primarily for the strength of her practice and the clarity of her artistic vocabulary,” says Emmart. Abidi’s themes went down well with Bangalore art lovers. In the video piece, Reserved, she shows a city coming to a halt for a political bigwig. It has images of schoolchildren waiting to wave crumpled paper flags at a motorcade that never arrives - it was a theme, obviously, that Indian viewers could relate to.
“I’m interested in talking about a more complex identity formation along linguistic and cultural lines, rather than religious ones,” says Abidi, who was surprised by the response to her show. “This is the first time I’ve had a solo show in India. So, it was a first for me that this kind of attention was given to my work here and I value that,” she adds.

Ali Kazim - watercolours
Meanwhile, Ali Kazim’s mastery over watercolours drew a huge response at Delhi’s Gallery Espace. The show was held in collaboration with Green Cardamom, a UK-based institution that promotes South Asian artists.

Mohammad Zeeshan - contemporary miniatures
And in Mumbai, art lovers got to see Muhammad Zeeshan’s contemporary miniatures in his show, What Lies Beneath, organised by Delhi’s Anant Art Gallery.
“There’s a certain understanding regarding art that I find in Indians. And it feels good to be a foreigner only 40 minutes across the border and be identified with my imagery as an international artist,” says Zeeshan, who has shown in Delhi, Agra and Calcutta since 2005. Miniature artist Muhammad Zeeshan wants his images to tease the imagination as in Let’s Make A Great Pattern I and Untitled II.

2005 show in Mumbai was turning point
Pakistani artists are addressing issues like gender, politics and ethnicity in a language that’s contemporary and international, says art critic Quddus Mirza.
India’s interest in Pakistani art has been building gradually. The canvas was prepared by curators like Pooja Sood in India and Salima Hashmi in Pakistan, and institutions like Khoj International Artists’ Association and VASL Artists Residency in Delhi and Karachi, respectively. Khoj and VASL have held artists’ residencies since the late 1980s. Early shows like “Mappings: Shared Histories” curated by Sood too helped.
But till 2004, when Nature Morte held Rana’s first show here, public interest was low. Recalls Nagy: “There was good response from the art community but not from collectors.” That has changed now. One catalyst was the large show, Beyond Borders: Art from Pakistan, at Mumbai’s National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in 2005. It was co-curated by Pakistani artist and art critic Quddus Mirza and NGMA’s then director Saryu Doshi.
“I didn’t realise it would create such a stir. It was the first time that we were recognised as contemporary to India in art,” says Mirza.

Pakistan’s art described as contemporary, international, cutting-edge
Since then, the momentum has picked up, spurred by galleries and artists. Says Muhammad Umer Butt, artist and creative director, Grey Noise, a new virtual art gallery based in Pakistan: “Rashid [Rana] has played an instrumental role in introducing us Pakistanis to India.”
Mirza believes that apart from the “newness” factor, the similarities and differences between the two nations have attracted Indians. Shows like Beyond Borders also revealed that Pakistani artists aren’t “making Islamic calligraphy or veiled women”. “We’re painting nudes, addressing issues of gender, politics and ethnicity in a language that is contemporary and international. So perhaps that shattering of pre-conceived ideas was one source for the Indian attraction,” he says.
But it isn’t just cultural affinity that’s attracting Indian art lovers to the work from across the border. The fact is that cutting-edge work is coming out of Pakistan. Says Saffronart co-director Dinesh Vazirani: “Wherever collectors are looking at art from outside, they’re looking for innovation.” Hammad Nasar, co-founder, Green Cardamom, believes this is partly because, “for most of its 60-year existence, Pakistan has remained a cauldron of political and social upheaval.” He adds: “This has proved to be a fertile ground for artists to mine.”
Two broad categories: new media and contemporary miniatures
Certainly, it has thrown up a diverse palette. The Pakistani art scene can be broadly divided into two: there are artists working in new media, and there are those that have given a contemporary twist to the miniature tradition.
Indians, says gallerists, are interested in both types of works. The big draw, of course, is Rana with his multi-layered images and messages. Take his Red Carpetphoto-montage series - Red Carpet-1 incidentally sold for a record $623,400 at Sotheby’s recent Spring Sale of Contemporary Art. At first glance, the work appears to be a large Persian carpet. But when you look closer, there’s a series of tiny photographs of scenes from a slaughterhouse. The work reflects, in a sense, Rana’s formal and conceptual concerns. He says in his artist’s statement, “In today’s environment of uncertainty, we cannot have the privilege of a single world-view. Every image or idea already contains its opposite within itself.”

Other artists names
Other contemporary Pakistani artists are also being noticed around the world. There are prominent names like Naiza Khan, sculptor-photographer Huma Mulji, Hamra Abbas, Faiza Butt, Mohammad Ali Talpur, and sculptor Khalil Chishtee, whose recent work includes sculptures with garbage bags. Mulji’s Arabian Delight, for instance, was reportedly picked up by British collector Charles Saatchi for $8,000 at the recent Dubai Art Fair.
At a different level, there are the neo-miniaturists - Indian collectors who are familiar with miniatures are quite enthusiastic about this type of work. Miniature art is a strong discipline at Lahore’s National College of Art (NCA), and it has turned out stars like Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq and Shahzia Sikander, who made a name for herself internationally in the ’90s.Now there are newer miniaturists like Imran Qureshi, Aisha Khalid, Nusra Latif Qureshi, Hasnat Mehmood, Talha Rathore and Zeeshan. “These artists have taken the South Asian tradition of miniature to new heights, and then moved beyond the page to invent a new visual language, rooted in tradition but of the here and now,” says Nasar.
Take Zeeshan, who began painting porn cinema posters before studying miniature work at NCA, and who combines the beauty of miniature with edgier themes of gender, dominance and violence. Zeeshan says he enjoys “teasing” the viewer. “And I think my images tease a lot. The oddity of the composition leads the viewer to dialogue and maybe, just for a second, ask, ‘What is this?” he says.

Pakistan’s art educational system strong…
Pakistan’s rich artistic output owes largely to its strong art educational system, especially since, unlike India, most practicing artists there also teach. “This has honed the critical edge of art here,” adds Rana.

But market infrastructure underdeveloped
For Pakistani artists too, India is an attractive destination, especially since the gallery infrastructure in Pakistan is still very underdeveloped. Grey Noise’s Butt says, apart from a few spaces like Rohtas 2 in Lahore: “We have showrooms but not galleries unfortunately.” Abidi too says, “The art market (in Pakistan) is almost non-existent and the small one that does exist is very conservative.” That’s why Butt felt compelled to found Grey Noise. “We’re the first virtual gallery to represent cutting-edge artists based in Pakistan,” he says.

International buyers showing interest
Already, Butt is “overwhelmed” by the response from India on his site. “I get a decent amount of taps from around the world and India takes the lead,” he says. Artists like Ayaz Jokhio, Mehreen Murtaza, Fahd Burki and Amna Hashmi are getting the most queries.
Even Indians living abroad are showing an interest in Pakistani art, according to Prajit Dutta, partner, Aicon Gallery, which is present in New York, Palo Alto and London. Last year, Aicon held two shows with Pakistani artists in London and New York. This year, it has done solos with Zeeshan and Talha Rathore in New York. Coming up in July is a show with installation and video artists Adeela Suleman, Jokhio and Fareeda Batool. And there’s a possible Naiza Khan show in New York next year. Dutta is also planning to show these artists in India. “We’ve got a great response from Western and Indian collectors,” he says.

Pakistani art attractive proposition
The boom in the international art market and growing interest in South Asia have made Pakistani art an attractive proposition, feels Rana, especially since art from South Asia is expected to emulate the global success of Chinese art. “Pakistani art benefits from a kind of trickle-down effect from this tremendous energy in the Indian art market,” he says.

Shows planned
The Pakistanis are obviously eager to make their mark in the booming Indian art mart. Green Cardamom, for instance, is planning two exhibitions in India next year, one by the acclaimed Hamra Abbas, who works in everything from video to animation, miniature painting and sculpture. In her Lessons on Love series, she transposed the romantic figures of Indian miniatures into sculpture. Says Green Cardamom’s Nasar: “India is a place where almost all our artists are keen to show. So we’ll figure out ways to do this to their best advantage.”
Nature Morte too will host a solo with Abbas in 2009 in Delhi and Calcutta. Besides, Abbas and Rana are part of a large canvas project Nagy’s working on with auction house Phillips de Pury in London in November, which will then travel to New York in January.
Meanwhile, GALLERYSKE’s Emmart too plans to mount curated shows by Indian and Pakistani artists. Even Vazirani intends to increase the Pakistan section of Saffronart’s auctions. And he will hold a two-city show with Pakistani artists in Mumbai and New York in 2009.

Prices still low
To be sure, prices are one reason why Pakistani art is suddenly becoming popular here. As Indian art prices soar, there are better bargains to be had across the border. One art critic says that emerging artists from Pakistan offer “much better value than most Indian art now”. Vazirani too says: “There are opportunities to discover new artists.”
According to one gallerist, high-quality miniatures from Pakistan are typically priced between $10,000 and $20,000 though the masters are more expensive.Autumn II, a miniature by Zahoor-Ul-Akhlaq, for instance, sold at Christie’s’ auction of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art this month for over $39,000.
The artists, though, are sceptical of the commercialisation in the Indian art market. “What we have now is everyone trying to cash in, exploit the artist, and in some cases, the artist exploiting the buyer,” says Abidi.
Yet the artistic exchange seems set to continue - barring the arbitrariness of officialdom. And as Chatterjee says: “This is just the beginning.”Image details: Rashid Rana
See:
Full story with more images Telegraph India
More on contemporary Pakistani art
Images for contemporary Pakistani artists
Contemporary Pakistani art books in Art Radar Asia store at Amazon
Subscribe to Art Radar Asia now
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Billionaires from Russia, Middle East new in list top 10 art collectors
Posted by artradar on June 28, 2008
MARKET WATCH COLLECTORS There’s change at the top. ARTnews magazine’s annual list of the Top 200 art collectors in the world has four newcomers among the top 10: Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk; Mexican businessman and telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim Helú; the New York pair of investor Leon Black and his wife, Debra, and Sheik Saud bin Mohammad bin Ali al-Thani of Qatar.
The Top 10 and Top 200 lists will be printed in the magazine’s summer issue, on July 11. Now in its 18th year, the ranking is compiled according to the level of activity each collector exhibited that year.
The information gives art-world watchers a framework for judging the shifting trends in the market. Indeed, as the editor and publisher of ARTnews, Milton Esterow, said: “It’s no secret that billionaires from Russia, the Middle East, and South America have emerged as big collectors.”
The appearance of these new collectors on the list reflects a general shift in the art market away from American collectors. According to Mr. Esterow, until this year, America generated between 60% and 70% of sales, and that will change in years to come. As the list shows, the top players come from all parts of the globe.
But the change will be gradual. Of the 200 collectors, still more than half come from America and 37 are from New York. The United Kingdom boasts 15 collectors, Germany has 12, and France and Switzerland have 10 apiece.
Contemporary art is the most popular for major art collectors: Seventy-eight percent of the individuals on the list are buying that genre. Modern and Impressionist art are the second- and third-most popular genres, but collectors are also buying everything from African, South American, and Asian art to rare books, furniture, and photography.
The activity of players who are buying the highest-quality works does not seem to reflect a teetering market. While many projected that the art market would be vulnerable and perhaps even crash this year, auction sales do not support the claim. In May alone, $1.57 billion was generated by Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips de Pury & Co. during their sales of Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary art, according to Mr. Esterow’s introduction to the lists. Mr. Esterow states that some of the collections that are represented on the list are worth close to $2 billion. “These people are not concerned with spending,” he said. “For them, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on art is like buying lunch.”
A survey conducted by ARTnews this year places current annual private art sales at between $25 billion and $30 billion, “and growing.” As a London dealer, Martin Summers, told ARTnews, art is “proving to be as sound an investment as you can make these days.”Source: New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/artnews-names-top-200-collectors/80774/

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