Contemporary art has gained a lot of popularity in a decade or so. The world is going gaga over such works. Yes, there was a time when Indian art used to be the foremost choice of every art lover, but now the times have changed. The change has been noticed by the Indian artists and thus they started making art using a blend of advanced technology and their creativity. In fact, this style of art making is loved so much so that the paintings made using these techniques are sold at a much higher price. Moreover, even though, popular artists are still the masters of this art, young, new and emerging artists are becoming the more preferred ones.
Hence, in this post, we list seven of such Indian artists. Take a look.
Atul Dodiya
The work of this artist has reached up to USD 5, 00,000 at an auction. The artist makes contemporary art that has strong images to trigger memories and feelings. His paintings are even seen in auctions where the paintings of renowned artists like Tyeb Mehta and Francis Newton Souza have been auctioned. The paintings made by him are influenced by modernist masters. He represents the traditions in a contemporary style. He often makes political or historic things in his works and the instances are such that are capable of engaging the minds of people globally.
Bharti Kher
Bharti Kher was recognized as the second most expensive Indian artist and was ranked 102 by Art price in the list of Top 500 contemporary artist. However, in the next list, she didn’t get any place as many Chinese artists took the positions. Nevertheless, ‘The skin speaks a language not its own’ was sold at Sotheby’s auction for a whopping amount of USD 1.5 million. This painting was sold in 2010 and made her the most expensive Indian female artist in India. Not just this, this same work of art was auctioned again at Christie’s auction for USD 1.785 million and broke her own record. 224 is her rank in 2015-16 Art price’s list.
Jitish Kallat
Jitish Kallat has been selling his works at a jaw-dropping amount since years but astonishingly in 2011, Kallat reached the heights. His action turnover raised to EUR 900000. The same has been the prime reason for the surge in the fame of the artist globally. No, his success stories are not limited to this. He set a new record in 2008 with the sale of ‘Humiliation Tax- II’ at USD 115000. He draws inspiration from the environment of his city Mumbai and the socio-political changes happening globally.
Raqib Shaw
Raqib Shaw was the top-selling artist of India in the year 2013-14 according to the Artprice’s list of top 500 artists. The artist gained all the more popularity amongst art lovers at an international level after a sale that happened at Sotheby’s in May 2007. One of the contemporary art made by the artist ‘Garden of Earthly Delights III’ got sold for USD 5.49 million. As a matter of fact, this contemporary work of art is till date the costliest Indian art ever sold at any auction. This made him the most expensive contemporary artist of India and made him as popular as he was in London earlier, in other countries as well. Moreover, his work is loved globally as he defies the socially accepted norms by making paintings that are seditious and seductive. Many of his works are treasured by major art fairs across the globe.
Ravinder Reddy
In 2012-13, Ravinder Reddy had an auction turnover of EUR 325000 and a top selling price of EUR 216000, making him the 4th most costly artist after Kapoor, Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta for that year. Although he is not counted now amongst the top 500 artists, his sculptures continue to attract gazes and appreciation. The artist makes sculptures of deities using vivacious colors. In fact, his sculpture of ‘Lakshmi Devi’ made with golden colors was sold at USD 312000 in 2007 at Christie’s sale of contemporary and modern art in New York. In addition to this, ‘Family’ and the representations of Shiva, Parvati, and Skanda in Chola Style were sold at Sotheby’s sale of 2013 for USD 341000.
Shilpa Gupta
Shilpa rose to stardom for her exceptional use of multimedia. She leaves her audience in amazement with each of her contemporary artwork. Her work is sold at Christie’s and Sotheby’s auctions for around USD 50,000.
Subodh Gupta
149 was his rank in 2015-16 in Artprice’s top 500 list of contemporary artists. In between 2005-2008, his selling price at auctions saw an increment of 5000%. For the year 2013-14, the artist was the third most expensive Indian artist.
The aforementioned artists have been mentioned in no particular order but yes all of them do continue to make our nation proud.