30th Sept. 2002
THE ARTS: SAFFRON ART
From Virtual to
Reality
With the largest exhibition of modern
Indian art in the US, a dotcom company sets a new trend
By Anil Padmanabhan
M.F. Husain
Co-pounders
Acrylic on Canvas
60 X 36 in.(152 X 92 cm.)
Jogen Chowdhury
Untitled
Oil on Canvas
1988
23 X 23 in. (59 X 59
cm.)
When Dinesh
Vazirani and his wife Minal grad-uated from the Ivy League
institutions of Harvard Business School and Insead in Paris in 1994,
the entire professional world was open to them. The young couple
however chose to follow their passion: Indian art. This gave birth
to Saffron Art in April 2000-among the first-of-its-kind online
sites for Indian art.
Learning from the dotcom bubble burst, the duo quickly
brought in an offline element to their business model, which turned
out to be hugely successful: from a turnover of $400,000 at the end
of 2001, the company's turnover went up to $1.7 million in March
2002. "Any business today needs to have an online and offline
auctions," says Dinesh.
Their
objective of targeting an international clientele has paid off. Now,
Saffron Art returns to the Big Apple with an exhibition and sale of
139 paintings from September 28 to October 1-the largest single sale
of its kind in the US. The event will showcase works by 12 leading
modernists, including some members of the progressive artists group
such as F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and M.F. Husain.
Partnering Saffron Art in this venture is Pundole Art
Gallery, which specialises in modern and contemporary Indian art.
Founded in 1963, the gallery has maintained an exclusive stable of
artists that include Hussain, Sakti Burman and Akbar Padamsee. The
exhibition will be curated by Dadiba Pundole who owns and operates
the gallery. The show can simultaneously be viewed online and
purchases made at the company's website.
Akbar
Padamsee
Mirror Image (Diptych)
Oil on Canvas, 1996
39 X 109 in. (99 X 276 cm.)
Sakti
Burman
Durga
Oil on Canvas, 2002
46 X 35 in. (116 X 89 cm.)
The
business model followed by Saffron Art combines clicks and bricks-an
offline element to go with the online. The annual worldwide
exhibitions have also become a window of fiscal opportunity, besides
stoking international awareness about Indian contemporary
art.
The
collections at the online auctions have begun to move up and the
company is now poised to achieve its objective of effecting two
auctions a year. The paintings fetched $140,000 in December 2000 and
$500,000 in May this year, with another auction slated for December.
At the same time, they have progressively sold more paintings at the
exhibitions. This year they have put up for sale art worth $1.5
million compared to $1 million last year.
"We
wanted to fuse technology and art, and to create a platform that can
be accessed internationally. In 2000, the medium on offer was the
Internet. When we realised that art needs a physical side to it, we
started doing art shows the world over," says Mrinal.
The
Saffron Art experiment has also drawn a different demography of art
buyers. According to Mrinal, a large chunk of the buyers are
professionals and non-resident Indians in the age group of 28-45
years-a departure from the earlier disposition that it was largely
the traditional Indian business houses that had supported art
sales.
Driven
by the desire to make a market for Indian art, Saffron Art has
commissioned a study (to be released in December) along with the
Netherlands-based Rabo Bank focusing on Indian art as an investment
opportunity. According to the Vaziranis, the study will focus on 15
to 20 artists and track their prices and contrast them with the
movement of other comparative investments like international equity
investments. In light of the dotcom collapse, the Saffron Art
experiment could well prove to be the exception to the rule.
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