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 A smorgasbord of works by 1,100 artists lured art lovers,
gallerists and gawkers to a cavernous exhibition space in the
capital, cementing the annual fair's reputation as one of South
Asia's top cultural events.
Each year, an estimated 100,000 visitors flock to the four-day
fair with entry tickets that cost no more than $6.
The city's glitterati strolled past exhibits by 85 galleries at
Thursday's preview clutching glasses of red wine, with several
displays sold before the seventh edition of the fair opened for
public viewing on Friday. The show runs until Sunday.
"We've had five or six sell-out booths and several galleries
have done exceptionally well," founder Neha Kirpal told Reuters.
India's art scene has been expanding for the past few years,
with auctioneer Christie's second Mumbai auction in December
generating sales of $12 million. A report by analysts ArtTactic
said confidence in the market was at its highest since 2007.
For four days each year, New Delhi becomes a center for the
visual arts, with the India Art Fair at the hub of several
spin-off events such as museum shows, seminars and glamorous
parties.
"Beyond the fair itself, the effect it has on the art scene in
Delhi at large ... and almost collaterally, the rest of Delhi
programs its art agendas," said artist Jitish Kallat, who said
he would be lucky to attend half the events on the schedule.
A life-size wooden replica of a typical Kashmiri house lies on
its side at the fair's entrance, a reminder of the destruction
wreaked by floods in the Himalayan state last year.
"GROWTH CURVE"
Kashmiri artist Veer Munshi, who lives in Delhi, took nearly
three months to complete the house, and said he would use
proceeds from its cost of about 3 million rupees ($48,500) to
rehabilitate artists and writers from his native land.
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 Inside the fair, among an array of paintings, sculpture,
video installations and photographs is another wooden exhibit -
one inspired by a militant assault on the city of Mumbai in
2008.
Mumbai artist T V Santhosh's installation tilts the city's
historic railway station at an angle, with several digital
clocks on its walls counting down time in the Mumbai landmark.
Elsewhere, metallic beads take the shape of four men hanging on
for dear life on a Mumbai train while an army of giant ants,
with their bodies sculpted from motorbike parts, bask under the
winter sun.
Like other years, customs duty and red tape threatens to temper
the enthusiasm of Western gallery owners attending the fair.
"I was told that a lot of the galleries from the United States
stopped (coming) because of all the taxes and all the paper work
involved," said Clarita Brinkerhoff, whose Florida-based gallery is
exhibiting for the first time in India.
Brinkerhoff's metal sculptures of peacocks, India's national bird,
studded with Swarovski crystals found favor with the Delhi crowd,
with five of her exhibits sold on the first day.
She wants to be back next year, but said she hoped "the process
would not be so complicated".
It may be years before New Delhi can hope to match art fairs in Hong
Kong or Dubai, but director Kirpal is unperturbed. She describes
India as an emerging market in contrast to several art markets that
have stagnated.
"The good news is that we are at the beginning of our growth curve
for the market," she said. "There's only one way to go."
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
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