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Focus: PLAYING TO THE GALLERY Art appreciation and entrepreneurship have resulted in a spurt of women-headed art galleries, writes Anju Munshi GOING by the way art galleries headed by women are mushrooming in metros today, it would seem that art appreciation, entrepreneurship and women go together well. It is boom time for art, indeed, especially Indian art, and enterprising modern women are responding to the market enthusiastically. To launch an art gallery, all it needs is some good space, an artistic inclination, an interactive ability and reasonably good foresight.For those artistically inclined, it provides the opportunity to do what they like doing. It also gives them enough freedom to expand their intuitive sense of style. Gayatri Sinha, art critic and curator, finds the trend of being an “Indian feminine art entrepreneur in a patriarchal structure an extremely powerful statement”.There were times when an art gallery was gifted to a wife by a well-stacked husband on an anniversary or birthday, whether she had a passion for art or not. That has changed. Today it’s the economics that drives her to open her own gallery. Women with enough time and resources are channelising their skills more professionally. The good news is that they are doing well, too.The list of the women art entrepreneurs is long: Tina Ambani and Avanti Birla are associated with their art galleries in Mumbai, Harmony and Articulate respectively; Renu Modi of Espace, Delhi; and many of them from Kolkata, like Smita Bajoria of Ganges; Ambika Beri of Sanskriti;, Manju Sen of mon and the well-known Katayun Saklat of Gallery Katayun, etc. They have one thing in common — they work hard and go that extra mile to find artists, promote them and create an outlet to showcase their own personal skill in the field.For these women, the art world is like an extension of their own personality. “Love of beauty and balance and brain are all put into use together,” asserts Nisha Singh, who has recently joined hands with Saklat to open K2gallery in Kolkata. The truth of the matter is that women, especially in Kolkata, owing to their proximity to places like Santiniketan, Chandannagore, etc, have been exposed to the art scene for years. They may have patronised artists by buying their work. “They started as buyers and now have turned into sellers,” says Aban Desai, whose Tejas Art Gallery in Kolkata is just two years old. These informal art dealers kept personal contact with the artists and their slowly branching into becoming agents and starting their own galleries was the next step. To what many men saw as a mode of investment, women have added aesthetics and a personal touch. “She has more patience and time; art appreciation comes with experience and exposure,” adds Desai.Chitrakoot has the distinction of being the first art gallery in Kolkata. It was established in 1984 by Sumitra Kejriwal and her husband, Prakash and today boasts of the largest collections of early and recent Bengali art. Bikash Bhattacharjee, Jogen Choudhary, Jamini Roy, Ganesh Pyne — you name it and Chitrakoot has it. Another name that spells respect in the art circle is that of Katayun Saklat, who has been in this field for over 20 years. An alumni of Government Art College and Indian Art College in Kolkata, as well as a student of London-based Patrick Reyntiens, she is perhaps one of those art dealers who could have become a leading artist herself. Saklat is known to encourage new artists, many of whom have blossomed into renowned names. “I decided to become the conduit between those artists and potential buyers,” Saklat says. Looking back, she is not only happy but eager to open more such galleries to promote budding talent. “Here we tread on different grounds, creating a dance between colour, texture, vision and firm business,”she says. Gallerie 88, Kolkata, run by Supriya Banerjee, and Cima owned by Rakhi Sarkar, have renowned artists from across the country on their rolls, including works by MF Hussain, Amrita Sher-Gill, Manjit Bawa and Raza. These galleries also keep specialised works from the Society of Contemporary Artists, including Shyamal Dutta Ray, Amitava Banerjee, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Sunil Das and Suhash Roy. For Jyotsana David, Gallery 51 in Kolkata started as part of her social work being associated with an NGO, Interlink, that dealt with mentally retarded children. She helped them learn performing and visual arts and got involved with the art world. After some time, with the knowhow and the exposure, she opened her own gallery and finds the whole experience very satisfying.A notable gallery run very successfully from Kolkata and New Delhi by a woman is Gallery Sanskriti. Protracted debates with her family over art in the course of a museum visits; an unshakable belief that art must not necessarily be beautiful to look at; that good art attempts to spark interest, ignite discussion and provoke critical thinking helped strengthen Ambica Beri’s resolve to launch Gallery Sanskriti in Kolkata in 1990. Later, in 1996, she opened one in New Delhi too. Exhibitions apart, Ambica’s art camps are a perfect meeting ground for painters, sculptors, students, and art lovers. However, there is also talk of exploitation of artists. Saklat does not deny it. “It happens when bulk art is bought by discerning patrons and once the price spirals the gallery makes money, but the artist gains nothing.” She believes that one should help the new artists either by introducing them to the right galleries or by buying their work at the right price and not hoard them and wait for the prices to shoot. Shilajit Ghosh, a well-known artist who commands a good price, finds that art in our society is not a commercial mainstream activity but a fringe one. Wives of moneyed people with space want to be affiliated with the art market. Even though some artists find the whole gallery business a form of “exploitative gimmicking” and prefer less price rather than sacrifice “freedom”, Shilajit says that “women gallery owners come as a respite because their basic nature helps them get a better insight into the psyche of the artists and they generally are more honest in money matters”. The online art market is also manned by women successfully. “It took five years but Indian art’s online market has caught up finally,” says Minal Vazirani, co-founder of Saffronart, an Indian art dealer organisation that claims to be one of the largest global auctioneers of Indian art, which runs galleries in Mumbai and New York and is also the pioneer of online auctions of Indian art.Obviously, women art connoisseurs could not have had it better. — Trans World Features.
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