Morality and Exchange in the Mumbai Contemporary Art World

Abstract

The Indian contemporary art market developed dramatically over the 1990s and 2000s. More buyers and increased prices for, as well as new attention on, Indian contemporary art, both domestically and abroad, also entailed the maturation of local art scenes, especially in Mumbai and Delhi, as new galleries, art businesses, and museums emerged. At a local level, these transformations are commonly understood as the result of globalization. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Mumbai contemporary art scene, this chapter examines how local art insiders interpret these ongoing changes. By approaching the Indian art market as a system of exchange, it accesses the everyday, informal ways in which individuals encounter the globalizing "art market." These are indirect, and not explicitly economic. Instead, art exchange is profoundly moral terrain, where interpersonal relationships are entangled with shifting assertions and beliefs about the right and wrong ways of dealing with art objects and money.

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