TAKE on art - Issue 09, 2012

In this issue

Yves Klein in 1959 famously ideated a work called Zone of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility where he sold empty space, an immaterial zone in the form of a certificate in exchange for gold; provided that the man who bought the certificate proceeded to burn it in front of the artist and other witnesses, making this purchase entirely ‘immaterial’. What drove Dino Buzzati and others who went along with this ritual, and paid for it in gold? Why would anyone acquire a work of art without ever being able to entirely posses it? Art makes a commodity and market out of something that has very little material value and at the same time is deemed priceless, which makes it almost impossible to formulaically predict the way the system functions. Yet Yves Klein was able to assume a buyer, a figure that was almost entirely necessary for this work to even come to exist, even as pure idea, and participate in completing it. While cynics would love to relegate collecting art to an investment like any other, driven by capital, what they often do not take into account is that this capital often contributes as much as it profits from the myth-making capacity of the art market. What we attempt to unravel here is the art of collecting, one that feeds and is sustained by the art world.

TAKE on art Magazine Description:

TAKE on art, the leading art magazine in India published bi-annually from New Delhi since 2009, comprehensively covers, reports and critiques art and cultural events from India and abroad. Led by Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, Bhavna Kakar, TAKE follows a critical approach to the larger discourse on art through curated issues with contributions by leading writers and critics from across the globe. The magazine has been invested in sustaining critical writing practices in India not just through its own capacity as a publication but also by organising initiatives that try to generate discourse, and keep conversations alive. In the past, the publication has organised writing workshops under the TAKE on Writing series as well as hosted the TAKE TALK series. Significant projects in this direction include TAKE on Residency, in collaboration with IFA at 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore in 2013, TAKE on Writing, Critic-Community: Contemporary Art Writing at Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts, Goa in 2014 and more recently, Take on Writing - Critical Writing Ensemble (CWE) Baroda Chapter at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda in December 2015 and the CWE Dhaka Chapter, conceptualised by Katya Garcia Anton, in collaboration with OCA, Norway at the Dhaka Art Summit in 2016 supported by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council. The most recent TAKE on Writing initiatives included The Book – The New Writing Group, a workshop led by Chus Martínez and Ingo Niermann supported by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council and The Book – Ensemble, both held in New Delhi in December 2016.

The magazine has travelled internationally to events such as Art Basel, Art Basel HK, Art Basel Miami, Dhaka Art Summit and Asia Triennale Manchester, as well as collaborated with landmark events locally such as Experimenter Curator's Hub (2011 - 2016), Insert 2014, Sarai Reader 09: Episode 1, 2 and 3, Amrita Sher-Gil National Art Week and Delhi Photo Festival.