Art’s first summit

Imagine three days dedicated to art, with artists from all over the country debating with experts and critics and investors about the future of Indian art. Imagine evenings of wining and dining with leading Indian artists as you walk through collections of paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, prints... and much more.

All this becomes reality in Delhi next month as the city hosts India’s first ever Art Summit. The brainchild of Hanmer and Partners, the art summit brings Indian and international art under one umbrella in order to showcase it better to the world. “It was unimaginable that given the international success of Indian art we did not have a festival of our own,” said Hanmer and Partners’ Neha Kripal,who is the Associate Summit Director.

What to expect
With a budget of about Rs two crore, the summit brings together over 34 exhibitors and will have 36 stalls. Galleries from all over the country and a few from England, like Emerging World Art and Rob Dean Art, will be present. Young artists from all across India will be promoted by galleries like Nature Morte while works by artists like M F Husain, Arpana Caur, Anjolie Ela Menon, Thota Vaikuntam, S H Raza, Riyas Komu, Jogen Chowdhury, F N Souza will be showcased as well.

The second day of the summit is slated for the Art Forum, wherein a series of panel discussions on the creativity and development of Indian art, the marketing and commercial aspects of the industry have been planned. Some of the panelists include Rajiv Lochan, director, NGMA, Pooja Sood, chairperson Khoj, Robert Storr, Dean, Yale University School of Art. “It’s not just an art fair but a platform for different stakeholders to deliberate.

For artists, gallerists and students to come together,” said Kripal. That’s not all, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Sotheby’s and Christie’s are also part of the mix. “And”, says Kripal, “2008 is the first year of the summit, so it’s small, for 2009 we have already signed on 30 international galleries.” Now that’s something to look forward to.