ART GOES ONLINE
Chennai has artists and galleries who sell works online. One such artist is Joju Dominic,whose abstract
paintings are largely influenced by Hindu religious scriptures.He says that in the case of regular exhibition, people behind the gallery can either break or make a person-the whole thing is a big racket where 33 per cent to 40 per cent has to be given to the gallery. But online selling of paintings would hardly cost Rs 10,000.
Apart from individual artists, galleries have also started selling paintings online.Artworld is a second generation gallery geared to promote Indian art abroad, especially NRIs who are big takers as far as Indian art is concerned.
Ashwin Rjagopalan from Ashwita Art gallery says that as far as galleries are concerned it is a 'Click and Motor policy', one has a physical gallery and having a website helps in promoting it further
Their website Ashwita.com is more than 100 MB and they offer every type of payment possible. They send a free life-size image of the painting if one is interested, whichever part of the world one is in. Even if the painting is sold, it is not deleted from the website. A tag with 'sold' put on it and the price too is mentioned. That way the website remains a constant guide as to how much an artwork is worth and people also understand the artist's worth.
The only problem about selling art online is that sometimes one doesn't know to whom the art is sold. It might even be a competitor. In most cases, even the real tones and quality of the paintings are lost due to color correction and posting on the web.
The art works sold online are usually the higher end ones as the shipment and insurance charges are very high. But one thing is for sure, selling art online will probably be the only future of art with more and more artists anf galleries going online.