BANGALORE'S ART SCENE IS NOT DOMINATED BY PURELY COMMERCIAL INTERESTS. OUR better galleries are places to view art, and not just shops where it can be bought and sold. Since there are few galleries that are inclined to promote serious artists, the latter take things into their own hands. There is a significant group of talented local artists that is concerned with responding to pressing social concerns. A close-knit community of committed practitioners and dealers has come into being which functions quite separately from the larger and more prosperous circle of artists and gallerists who deal with decorative artworks that cater to a less demanding audience.

Despite Bangalore's economic growth, not many buyers of contemporary art are based in the city. This dearth of local interest could be due to any number of reasons. For instance, Bangalore lacks proper facilities for art education. It is telling, after all, that aspiring artists from Bangalore invariably go away to study Fine Art at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay, the M.S. University in Baroda or Santiniketan. The general public also remains uneducated because there are few government-funded art institutions and the pace of art events and exhibitions is considerably slower than in Mumbai and Delhi. Consequently, Bangalore's well-off 'intelligentsia' still think art is synonymous with domestic décor - unlike elsewhere in the country, it isn't even viewed as a 'good investment'. For instance, there has been little local response to the first auction house established in Bangalore - Bid & Hammer - which held its first auction here in January 2008.

Of course, discerning collectors do exist - but not in significant numbers. While there are Bangalore-based collectors who are enthusiastic about collecting artists from Bangalore, their interest alone is not sufficient to sustain the scene. Since the market for unconventional art is so limited, the better galleries and artists sell to buyers who live elsewhere in the country. Fortunately, though, this has not hampered Bangalore's production of exciting art and interested members of the public can view it at artists' studios and some commercial venues.

Ranjani Shettar. Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles. Stainless steel, muslin cloth,
tamarid kernel powder paste, lacquer.
Dimensions variable. 2007-08. This was a work in progress shown at a Preview held at Shetter's studio.
IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND TALWAR GALLERY NEW YORK / NEW DELHI.

The increase in the number of galleries showing stimulating artworks has been noteworthy in the last few years - even if it is not comparable to developments in Bombay and Delhi. About twenty-five years ago, the art scene in Bangalore mostly centred around the tiny Kritika Art Gallery. Run at a relaxed pace by Kaushalya Dayaram, it showcased works by local South Indian artists. Government-dependent bodies, like the Lalit Kala Akademi, the galleries at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath and the Venkatappa Art Gallery, situated within the Karnataka Government Museum precincts, were (and continue to be) democratically available for rent to amateurs and professionals alike. Typically, the city's better-known Modern artists, like S.G. Vasudev and Yusuf Arakkal, preferred to hold their exhibitions at the Alliance Francaise and the Max Mueller Bhavan. Of course, there were also significant touring exhibitions that came from other cities in India or from abroad, but they were rare and dependent on the central government's decisions.