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The Auctioneer, Mumbai
Neville Tuli
There has been a fundamental attitude change I would have to say that, so far, not Western dialogue with India will always be very
throughout India, including Mumbai, Delhi, fundamentally so. But there is that first base of superficial – since Independence, most
Baroda, Chennai and Calcutta – these are the financial security, and there is the chance that relationships with the outside world have been
main cities, and each of them has evolved in what we create will allow us to have a livelihood. this way. That’s why India is still a very inward-
different ways, the attitudes towards galleries It has reached that first level of maturity. looking country; she has a huge population and
and art events mirroring underlying urban This feature may only focus on two cities, store of ideas and values, yet the international
identities and personalities. Delhi, for example, but regionalisation was the first thing we felt had world continues to look at India with many
a political and diplomatic centre, has witnessed to change: that out of this localised attitude we preconceptions. On one level the success of a
the mushrooming of many different kinds of had to create a very clear, national, international small number of artists beyond India is based on
galleries, whereas Mumbai, a financial centre, picture: only then can the regions actually grow a very limited pool of knowledge from which the
was the first to take an interest in the financial and integrate. The whole vision at Osian’s [Tuli’s international collector is making judgements –
dimension of Indian art through auctions. It was auction house and archive] was to build a but that’s the nature of any relationship between
in Mumbai, in November 1997, that HEART national financially independent infrastructure someone from the outside and someone from
(the Tuli Foundation for Holistic Education & for the arts and culture within a developmental the inside. If you look at the early partnerships
Art) held its first auction – the first auction by an framework, and Mumbai became the first base made between multinationals and local
Indian house – and it is here that the first seeds for that. The Delhi office opened three years companies, you will find that almost all, five to
of financial excitement were sown. As such, thereafter, and now the international offices are ten years later, have moved on. It is the same
Mumbai has been the so-called financial capital opening. We do not have a great network in process with the arts – the first artists being
of the Indian artworld. Only in the last three terms of libraries, museums, archives, collected will probably not be the artists
or four years has Delhi come to equal it in terms interrelationships, exchange programmes, art who will be sustained in collections five or ten
of economic interest, an emerging collector camps, studios, artist-in-residence programmes, years down the line. Also, in my opinion,
base and the infrastructure that supports the etc. To make Indian art financially independent at the moment collecting Indian art is a fashion
development of contemporary art. is the change we have endeavoured to bring internationally, rather than something very deep
In a way, the Delhi crowd is more about, and building the Osianama, our arts or meaningful. The world sees India as
religious in attending openings and participating complex in Mumbai, is a result of a redistribution something it needs to be part of. That is the
in discussions and the like. Remember that of wealth. The auction house, along with the art nature of how relationships begin, but to be
Mumbai is a film centre, and there is a certain advisory services, earned the wealth, and it’s sustained, this process needs a greater
ethos that is affected by film openings and film now deployed into the Osianama, which knowledge base and means of dissemination
events. Further, going to openings is now a hopefully will involve a whole different group of and sharing.
‘page three’ event, as they say, and it is easy to people who never would have entered this
be a bit condescending towards such, but it is a creative world. Neville Tuli is an author, entrepreneur, art collector
step in the process of building up a cultural In terms of the impact of Indian artists and founder of the Mumbai-based auction house
infrastructure, and in a way it is important that internationally, you must realise that the and archive Osian’s
the artist is seen to be a celebrity also. The key is
that the artist does not get distracted, even as
the distractions are increasing day by day. There
is more nouveau-riche money in Delhi, which is
also outperforming Mumbai in terms of
conspicuous consumption. However, people
forget that Delhi is a state – or a territory, as we
call it – not simply a city, and it has many facets
and interests.
In terms of recent developments,
galleries that have an eye to the international
world no longer see Indian contemporary art
as Indian, but part of the contemporary art
movement, though all of this is catalysed by the
financial changes. On a national scale, there is
no great love for contemporary art in itself as
of yet, only interest; the love will now hopefully
emerge, given that a credible material
infrastructure is growing into place. If one were
to address questions of greater intellectual
awareness and critical discussion, to ask whether
there is more dialogue, innovation and
experiment at work in contemporary art in India,
Pilgrimage_Delhi/Mumbai.indd 120 8/2/08 12:58:17
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