Gurgaon prefers its art quirky, contemporary and small

Gurgaon is slowly making a mark in the NCR art scene. And the city has a distinct taste when it comes to buying art. Experts in the field, who claim that they can tell a lot about people by their choice of paintings, say that when it comes to buying art for their homes, Gurgaonwallahs' taste is well-defined. Artists and gallery owners at the recently concluded India Art Fair in Delhi say that Gurgaonwallahs tend to go for abstract, contemporary, colourful and smaller artworks.

Mandira Lamba, a gallerist at Blueprint12, says, "Gurgaon people are not rigid about buying oil on canvas. They are more open to new things like charcoal drawings. We deal with many South Asian artists and Gurgaonwallahs are more open to buying their work. The price range is `50,000-`2,00,000 and they don't look for just renowned names. Since most of them live in flats, they look for smaller paintings." Another exhibitor displaying the work of veteran artists like Jogen Chowdhury and Sakti Burman, adds, "They take a lot of time to choose and want to be very sure of what they are buying. They tend to bombard us with questions."

Anahita Taneja, director, Shireen Empire, says, "Unlike Delhi, most of the people in Gurgaon reside in apartments, and have a space constraint. So they don't buy big paintings. A quirky, kitschy, contemporary work, for example, something that amalgamates photography and painting, will be picked up by a young executive." Rajnish Jyoti Jain, owner, Gallery Ragini, says, "It has to be more attractive and colourful, rather than refined. Gurgaon buys a lot of abstract work."

Anu Bajaj, owner, Art Positive, says, "My art gallery is a decade old and about 25% of my clients are from Gurgaon. The market is divided between the young working couples and the retired people settled in Gurgaon."

Anu adds, "The younger lot goes for contemporary work with paintings ranging only up to two-three lakhs. They choose something which reflects their personality and is eye-catching. The older section still goes for classic and figurative paintings."

Sanchit Joshan, who lives in Phase 5, has an art gallery in south Delhi. Most of the pieces at the gallery are by known artistes and are priced above `10 lakhs, and Sanchit says that Gurgaon's corporate crowd is less likely buy art from his place. "Our clients are mostly businessmen. Whether it's Delhi or Gurgaon, businessmen think alike. We don't have many corporate employees coming to our outlet," he says.

Gurgaon-based Divyan Gupta, owner of artanddecors.com, says, "Gurgaon mostly has an American sitcom-watching population and so they buy pop art. At times, some abstract art pieces, which we never imagined will be sold in NCR, were picked up by Gurgaonwallahs. They don't buy anything very expensive and only the expats living in Gurgaon go for them."

The artistes too echo the same sentiments. Vinita Dasgupta, an upcoming artiste, shifted base from south Delhi to Gurgaon last year and says it worked wonders for her. She says, "Gurgaon people are well-travelled and exposed to what is happening in the art scenario. A lot of my new media works, which never found takers in Delhi, sold like hot cakes in Gurgaon. In the Millennium City, I got just the right kind of audience for my contemporary works."

Delhi-based artiste, George Martin, says, "It all boils down to taste. Somebody who has travelled across the globe and has an eye for art will observe foreign work more closely compared to somebody who spends most of their time in the city. Paintings are also a way of articulation. So, in that sense, a city like Gurgaon loves to articulate in a unique manner compared to other cities."

Satish Gupta, artiste, sculptor and muralist, whose month-long art exhibition is coming up in Gurgaon, paints a larger picture. He says, "Delhi residents have been art lovers and collectors for a while now. Gurgaon is still young, and a lot of its residents are not only from Delhi, but from cities all over India and abroad. With this healthy mix of cosmopolitan and eclectic residents, the taste for art here is gradually growing. They are becoming keen collectors and connoisseurs of different kinds of art."

Resource: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com