Indian Art Summit 2009

Here are my initial thoughts of Indian Art Summit 2009 (IAS 09). I attended the VVIP preview at the Indian Art Summit on Wednesday afternoon (which I was later today was for Sotheby's clients but I am not sure if that is 100% accurate). It was good to be allowed to come in at 3pm before the official VIP preview at 5.00pm so that there was time to look around without too much of a crowd. I did not attend last year's conference after friends who attended on the first day told me not to bother. So I was pleasantly surprised with the whole set up, the number of galleries attending and the general buzz around the whole event.

The Good:
- Most of the top end Indian galleries were present. The obvious missing one was Pundole Gallery from Mumbai. I was later today that Dadiba pulled out from the Summit because the organisers refused to let him show Husain's works. I applaud Dadiba for his position on this matter.
- Some interesting works and artists from the overseas galleries LIsson, Arario, Shonandai, etc.
- The only works that I would have bothered buying from the fair (if I had the money) would have been Anish Kapoors, Suhasini Kejriwal (Christian Hosp) , FN Souza (his drawings and chemicals at DAG), Raza (again at DAG) , Thukral & Tagra (Nature Morte), El Anatusi (Sakshi), Vibha Galhotra (Christian Hosp), Sadanand (Chaterjee & Lal), Sheila Makhijani (Anant) and Prajjal Choudhury (Project 88).
- Princess Pea and delicious cup cakes courtesy of Rob Dean Arts.
- The GallerySke Shop with cool t-shirts, funky eyewear and playing cards, etc.
- Favourite booth: Delhi Art Gallery which actually showed some high quality art.
- The speaker's forum on Saturday afternoon on Valuation where we had Dinesh (Saffronart), Amrita Jhaveri (Art Consultant), Anders (Art Tactic), Zara (Sotheby's) and Geetha (Sakshi), talk about how to put a value on works of art. Some tough questions were raised and the audience got very engaged. Shame that we didn't have more time for Q&A from the floor.

The Not So Good
- No major works other than the Anish. Others that nearly made this list was the Raza (DAG) and Arpita Singh (Vadehra).
- Most of the art was so-so and lot of it was awful.
- Nothing new and exciting. Part of thrill and enjoyment of going to fairs, for me, is to see new artists, new ideas and get excited. The two artists that stood out for me were both from Gallery Christian Hosp: Simrin Mehra-Agarwal and Parul Thakur.
- Paying for drinks at the VIP lounge when wine and beer were being served for free downstairs!?
- Waiting for the minibus to take you to and from the main gate to Hall 7.
- Trying to get something to eat on Saturday was a total disaster. Pizzas were going missing, service was mediocre and there was hardly any space to stand let alone sit.

Long way from the likes for Frieze or even Art Singapore but a step in the right direction. I am sure it will keep getting better.