Life is changing so why not art? Earlier, the camps were too serious, too many discussions and no freedom - it was like a school camp. Today, we let artists feel good.

-Kalpana Shah, Tao Art Gallery

The Indian artists are on a roll. The world at their feet, they celebrate at ‘high life’ art camps in exotic destinations. Nupur Mahajan Sinh charts their meteoric rise from artistic anonymity to their just acquired rock star status.

The Indian artist is on an all time high. He’s dangling in Sydney living rooms and holding solos in New York’s coveted galleries. When he’s not in residency at an international art Mecca, he’s jet-setting to exotic destinations for the all new, ‘high life’ art camp. He also finds time to be at calendar art fests – the Venice Bienalle, also the Tokyo, Havana and Moscow Bienalle and the Basel art fair. He’s got curators and museums in waiting not just in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore but also in Paris, Geneva and Denmark. All the while – through this very arty, highbrow, philanthropic existence – he’s got a hawk-eyed tap on the trends of the market. ‘What did I last sell for?’ is a common enough query.

Vivek Oberoi with Ashish Balram Nagpal

Subodh Gupta

Not without reason. Atul himself has never gone beyond 30 lakhs. And to think that he’s the senior artist in the family! Try explaining that to the proud owner who bid for Anju and paid the whopping sum at Sotheby’s recent auction. “The market has gone crazy,” proclaims Shireen Gandhy of Chemould Art Gallery, who, though an Anju dealer, is equally shocked by her price shooting six times over. “The market is acute and the artist is aware of it. They even realise the buyers’ stupidity but who’s complaining?”

Economics have not swayed collector-industrialist, Harsh Goenka, to shift the base of his coveted camp from Alibaug to Antwerp. “What’s an art camp that has no art? These so called new art camps have no element of art. Artists are not under compulsion to paint at the camp and so the basic purpose is lost. Everybody has a party but because the artist is under obligation to give away two works, he often gives away old ones.”

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