NEW DELHI.- India Art Fair, the leading platform for contemporary and modern art from South Asia, closed its 12th edition on 2 February 2020, amidst strong sales and continued growing confidence in the South Asian art market. The fair was attended by leading gallerists, collectors, artists, museum professionals, philanthropists and students, with exhibitors reporting sales to new collectors entering both the contemporary and modern markets.
India Art Fair featured 81 modern, contemporary and institutional exhibitors, an inaugural performance art programme, outdoor projects, artist talks, workshops, book signings and the launch of the second issue of the annual India Art Fair magazine. The fair’s commitment to the art ecosystem in South Asia was made prominent through a curated programme throughout the fair duration which highlights audience awareness and exploration for Indian, regional and international audiences. The fair façade which featured a work by popular contemporary artist Sameer Kulavoor which covered four exhibition tents.
Jagdip Jagpal, Fair Director, India Art Fair, said: “India Art Fair has grown extensively over the last 12 years. Over this most recent edition, the fair has showcased five hundred artists, each addressing a range of social, political and ecological topics in their individual ways and opening dialogues and perspectives of those visiting from across India and the wider globe. We’ve also engaged with a great range of new visitors and collectors from across the region, and internationally, while also reconnecting our relationships with those who’ve visited previously. With the collector’s masterclass sessions, we’ve also welcomed a great deal of new and young collectors and those with an interest in both modern and contemporary works.
Over the last three years, we have looked to strengthen the programme through expanded talks, performances, a new bookshop and artist led workshops to further engage audiences with art from the region, as well as make the visit to the fair ever more accessible for all ages and abilities, and highlight the very best of the South Asian and Indian art scene. Collaboration and support from across the arts, as well as the strong team behind the fair have all played a hugely important role to helping with this year’s success. We look forward the next edition of India Art Fair in 2021 and the continual support and encouragement from the artists, galleries and exhibitors who have contributed so positively to the great success this year.”
Marking their 5th year with India Art Fair, Presenting Partner BMW Group India returned to the fair and showcased the BMW Art Car by Andy Warhol – one of the nineteen prominent artists from across the world to have created Art Cars using contemporary BMW automobiles of their times, which was for this edition, complimented by The Warhol Talk.
Rudratej Singh, President and CEO, BMW Group India, said: “At BMW, we just don’t build the best performing cars, but deeply believe in the intangibles. People love BMW for its superior performance, luxurious experience, safety and its underpinning design and aesthetic sensibility. Therefore, to help build and strengthen intercultural platforms of creativity in the field of art, music, design and architecture is very important to us. India Art Fair is a perfect platform for us to reach out to our discerning customers and showcase the brand’s philosophy.”
Building on the success of the last editions, the 2020 fair attendees included prominent collectors and arts industry professionals from across India, the South Asia region and internationally who attended to explore and experience the diverse line up of leading exhibitors alongside a curated programme of performances and talks.
Senior figures in India’s cultural scene attended the fair, including architect Mahendra Raj and David Adjaye, film actress Sonam Kapoor, fashion designers Aneeth Arora, Sanjay Garg, Masaba Gupta, Rashmi Varma, Gaurav Jai Gupta, Nimish Shah, J.J. Valaya and Ranna Gill, writer and author Vikram Seth, philanthropists Kiran Nadar, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Pinky Reddy, Feroze Gujral and Lekha Poddar. Representatives of large corporations including BNP Paribas, Reliance Group, DLF Limited, Taj Hotels, JSW Foundation, Credit Suisse, Google, RPG Group and NITI Aayog were also present, along with ambassadors and senior government officials from France, Germany, Korea, Brazil, Italy, Canada, United States of American and the United Kingdom.
With the fairs focus on the artists’ voice throughout its programming, the following artists attended: Martin Parr, Marcel Dzama, Nadira Husain, Amar Kanwar, Nilima Sheikh, Gulammohamed Sheikh, Vivan Sundaram, Manu Parekh, Madhvi Parekh, Arpita Singh, Atul Dodiya, Anju Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, Reena Kallat, Shilpa Gupta, Asim Waqif, Mithu Sen, Tayebi Begum Lipi, Tanya Goel, Youdhisthir Maharjan, Ronny Sen and Thukral & Tagra, amongst others.
India Art Fair welcomed a number of visitors which included members and patrons from prestigious institutions featuring the Museum of Modern Art (USA); the Musée des Arts Modernes de la Ville de Paris (France); MFA Houston (USA), The Santa Barbara Museum (USA); Dhondt Dhaenens Museum (Belgium); and the Guggenheim (USA); and collector groups from Russia, Germany and the USA; and visits from Glen Lowry, Director, Museum of Modern Art; Devika Singh, Curator of International Art, Tate Modern; Dr. Mallica Kumbera Landrus, Senior Curator of Indian Collections, Ashmolean Museum; and curators from notable institutions such as Amy Poster (Brooklyn Museum), Aimee Froom (Islamic Worlds at the Museum of Fine Arts) Uthra Rajgopal (Whitworth Museum), Sandhini Poddar and Alexandra Munro (Solomon R Guggenheim Museum), Ritika Biswas (New Art Exchange), Tarun Nagesh (Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art), Ulrike Groos (Kunstmuseum Stuttgart), Zelfira Tregyulova (Tretyakov State Gallery) and Sophie Makariou (Musée Guimet), and José Carlos Diaz (Andy Warhol Museum), amongst others.
In 2020, India Art Fair has been an all-inclusive event, with a program featuring dedicated tours for supporting special assistance. Art making workshops attracted school students and families providing activities and events for all ages, backgrounds and abilities over the course of the fair. The refreshed layout, and diversity of focused and curated displays was noted by many visitors, along with the high standard of gallery presentations showcasing a breadth of work from around the world.
After nine years of being at NSIC, the 13th edition of India Art Fair will take place at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi within the newly built exhibition halls, from 18 February to 21 February 2021.
Comments from exhibitors, artists and arts professionals included:
Sameer Kulavoor, Artist
“It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the IAF team towards making the façade possible. Wonderful to see varied interpretations of my work on the façade and inside the TARQ booth – the obvious references to street life but also concerns about the urban verticality and the chronology of construction. Great to also witness the impact that art can have inside as well as outside the ‘gallery space’.”
Dominique Levy, Collector
This was the first time I visited New Delhi for India Art Fair. I discovered a fair with an excellent format that was well organised, led by a team that listened to international visitors like myself. All was made easier by very clear programming and structure, that included a schedule of visits, galleries and highquality artist led talks. An absolute must visit to explore the artistic scene across the region.
Smriti Rajgarhia, Director | Serendipity Arts Foundation and Festival (Goa)
“As an institutional partner, we are thankful to the fair committee for hosting and enabling us to share excerpts of the 4th Serendipity Arts Festival at the India Art Fair, where we also released our festival film and new catalogue for 2019-20. We were happy to see the presence of the various projects from our Alumni network spread through the fair and glad to see the response from the people and the teams working here at the Fair, making it a pleasant experience for all."
James Green, Director | David Zwirner (London, New York, Paris and Hong Kong)
“Our third year has been our most successful yet, building on relationships with regional collectors started over the previous two years whilst expanding interest in our artists and programme. We have sold to known collectors and first-time buyers with the gallery, and placed work by artists that have shown in India before – Oscar Murillo, Harold Ancart, Wolfgang Tillmans and Marcel Drama – and those showing here for the first time, Lucas Arruda.”
Burkhard Riemschneider, Director | neugerriemschneider (Berlin)
“We have had an amazing experience at the fair this year and even when we were here the first time in 2019, we experienced a real openness by those who attended through the great interest and knowledge they expressed towards our works and artists. The engagement has continued this year as we have seen people react so positively to signature works at the booth, and we are very pleased by the opportunity to participate.”
Gregor Hose & Sabine Schmidt, Partner | PSM (Berlin)
“Our first time at India Art Fair has been an overwhelming experience, thanks to the people who have spoiled us with their enthusiasm, curiosity and sincere interest that is hard to find to that extent at Western art fairs anymore. The response we have received in Delhi – has in every regard – is a reminder of why we do what we are doing.”
Renu Modi, Founder and Director | Gallery Espace (New Delhi)
“Gallery Espace has participated in India Art Fair since its inception. The fair is looking very good this year with the spacious aisles and booth layout, the production quality and the very best of Indian contemporary art you see under one roof. For us, it has been a good fair in terms of sales but more important, for the connections made with collectors and art institutions from abroad.”
Ridhi Bhalla, Director | Blueprint12 Gallery (New Delhi)
“We have had yet another fantastic year at India Art Fair and met many collectors both from India and around the world from the first day. We are overwhelmed with the response and are pleased to confirm that we have made positive sales of works by our artists in a diverse price range.”
Roshini Vadehra, Director | Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi)
“As always, the art fair has exceeded our expectations, not only in terms of commercial success, but also in terms of quality of art and varied audiences that the fair has attracted. We were able to place many of our works in great collections on the first day itself. Buyers ranged from Delhi and Mumbai to Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland. This fair edition also introduced us to new collectors who were just initiating their journey of collecting, starting from this art fair.”
Marc Strauss, Director | MARC STRAUS (New York)
“We are delighted to have been invited to the India Art Fair. It's run by true professionals who have welcomed us in every way. We brought four abstract paintings by Michael Brown and all have been sold to very good collections, along with other sales for other works. Next year, we'll be here, and we'll know many more people. We made great friends here.”
Priya Jhaveri, Co-founder | Jhaveri Contemporary (Mumbai)
“The 12th edition of the fair has been a great one for the gallery, with us connecting with new audiences across India and the wider globe, as well as a number of international institutions. While we’ve also had the opportunity to build upon our existing client relationships across the region.”
Ashish Anand, CEO and Managing Director | DAG (New Delhi, Mumbai, New York)
“DAG’s offering at India Art Fair 2020, MASTERPIECES: 100 YEARS OF INDIAN ART was extremely well-received, across connoisseurs and collectors to artists and art historians, to those beginning their journey in art. This diverse range of visitors which it attracts points to the continuing relevance and importance of India Art Fair, and encourages us to bring a stellar collection of modern Indian art. Ranging from the Bengal School including Kshitindranath Majumdar, pathbreaking Progressives such as K. K. Ara, M. F. Husain, Krishen Khanna, S. H. Raza to artists from the Madras Art Movement like K. Sultan Ali, amongst other modern masterpieces, DAG, once again, ended India Art Fair on a high note—as did the fair itself.”
Christopher Turner, Keeper of Design, Architecture and Digital | V&A Museum (London)
“The majority of the work at India Art Fair is from South Asia - pieces by the Bombay progressives to emerging names – which gives it a unique perspective. The fair is a celebration of the confidence, energy and quality of the Indian art scene and any national or international visitor will learn and be inspired by the work on display, and the talks and other events hosted alongside.”
André Correa do Lago, Ambassador of Brazil to India (Embassy of Brazil)
“We were thrilled to participate in the fair. It allowed us to reach out and spark curiosity in a new audience about the many exciting contemporary art museums in Brazil, some of which have extraordinary architecture.”
