THE MARKET IS A STRANGE ANIMAL. HYDRA-HEADED, bullish and bearish in turns, it grows at a shifting pace: it helps the active promotion of art initiatives, gives artists the will to aspire, cuts short the life of one genre and revives the fortunes of another. Over the last five years, as the prices of artworks have zoomed, new galleries have sprung up, the number of art marketeers has increased and the collector profile has altered. How has this affected artists, critics, gallerists, dealers and viewers? Is critical art being produced to match the change in fortunes? How does the market boom threaten to transform our understanding and appreciation of art in contrary ways? In this issue of ART India, we try and assess some of these extraordinary developments.

In his Lead Essay, Lucian Harris introduces us to important individual and institutional collectors - some of the main actors behind the internationalization of Indian art. In her Lead Essay, Laura Williams discusses the different ways in which value propositions related to art have evolved over time. Anders Petterson presents ArtTactic's market maps as Mortimer Chatterjee questions the short-sightedness of gallerists. Arshiya Lokhandwala re-introduces us to Subodh Gupta - the most feted Indian contemporary artist in the international arena. Quddus Mirza takes a long hard look at the moral universe of the art market in Pakistan while Sandhya Bordewekar hopes that the unnatural frenzy of art transactions dies down. Abhay Maskara, Ashok Sukumaran, Dinesh Vazirani, Geetha Mehra, Jai Danani, Mallika Advani and Vishwas Kulkarni participate in a spirited Panel Discussion and address a variety of art market issues. Ganieve Grewal informs us about Christie's contribution to the development of the market for art in India, as Maithili Parekh from Sotheby's points out some of its salient features.

We carry all our regular features, reports and reviews.

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