Our first stop on a gallery hopping tour of Bangalore on Saturday was at the TIME & SPACE gallery.
The show was a series of painting/collages made from found material by the artist Gregory Lent.
The three young artists I was with all agreed that the work was pretty interesting and of very high quality, although they thought the prices seemed much too low for this market.
Me and one of the other visitors agreed that we wish we had not read the artist statement. I know it is a tradition, and required at galleries, but there are very few painters that I have enjoyed listen speak or write about their work, especially when they are writing about it for a show or a catalog. (Sorry for the mass generalization).
It was my first time at the gallery, and it is a very interesting space. The structure of the building is basically a shed, with some rain resistant canvas over the openings on the side. But the inside is open, pleasant and well lit, and the surrounding yard has a beautiful selection of plants.
However, the front gate was locked and we had to ring the bell to come inside. One American “Fine Art” tradition I would love to not see perpetuated in the burgeoning Indian Fine Art market. However, there was none of the snobbery or snootiness that accompanies visiting a high-end New York gallery.
Which reminds me - one of my good friends is working for the art market here in India. I recommend to her, and to you, dear reader, the book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art interesting study of the high end fine art market in the U.S. and Europe. It reconfirms many of my beliefs about the crassness and stupidity of the Gallery / Auction / Fine Art shell game. Artists have always been resisting / offering alternatives to the dominant economy that their work circulates in. For a recent alternative I like Randy’s Letter to the NYTimes
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