At Christie’s, MF Husain’s diptych Battle of Ganga and Jamuna came under the hammer for over Rs 6 crore in March, and in June the auction house set a record for Indian modern and contemporary art when it sold FN Souza’s Birth for over Rs 10 crore. The year 2008 was filled with success stories for Indian art, until, like everything else, it became victim to the global economic recession. Suddenly auctioneers started finding it difficult to excite bidders. The usually grand art openings became less lavish, with a minimalist menu and a basic catalogue. The timeline for the end of this downslide is hard to predict, but galleries and artists are doing whatever it takes to please connoisseurs for the year ahead.

The Indian art world is most excited about the inauguration of the new wings at the National Gallery of Modern Art. Covering an area of 24,700 sq meters, the new wings will have touch screens to give detailed information regarding programme schedules and will include a larger library, preview theatre, conservation laboratories, a cafeteria and an over 200-seat auditorium. The date for the ribbon-cutting ceremony still remains unannounced, but officials at NGMA have already planned exhibitions for D-day. Select museum collections will be on display, along with Tyeb Mehta’s retrospective and an exhibition of Nandalal Bose’s work that has returned after travelling to San Diego Museum of Art and Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Gallery Espace in New Friends Colony celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2009. “There are two major publications and exhibitions planned in July and December,” says Modi, who has also planned a Mekhala Bahl solo in January and a Nilima Sheikh solo in April at the New Friends Colony Gallery.

Other solo exhibitions in the offing include Amitava Das’s ‘The Body Social’ at Delhi Art Gallery in February and before that Baroda-based Art Home will bring to Delhi, sculptures in steel and wood by Jeram Patel at Triveni Kala Sangam in February. Vadehra Art Gallery will showcase recent work by Anjum Singh and Ram Kumar in January, followed by Rameshwar Broota in February and Anju and Atul Dodiya in April. While Arun Vadehra hopes to accommodate an exhibition of Pakistani women artists that was earlier scheduled for December 2008, Aparajita Jain’s Seven Art Limited will also show works by artists from Pakistan. Titled ‘Breaking News’, this will comprise artwork by Imran Ahmed, Nadia Shaukat and Hamra Abbas. At The Devi Art Foundation, Rashid Rana will curate an exhibition of select artwork from Lekha and Anupam Poddar’s collection to portray contemporary art practice in Pakistan, between August to December.

While one can expect art patrons to hobnob over art by masters like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali at Marigold Fine Art’s second exhibition scheduled early next year, in April, French photographer Marc Riboud will display his images at Tasveer. Also in the photo world, Dayanita Singh will showcase coloured photographs for the first time in India at a solo at Nature Morte and Richard Bartholomew’s photographs will be exhibited at Photoink in January.

Those looking for younger talent, meanwhile, can head to Lalit Kala Akademi, where Vadehra will present Shilpa Gupta’s work in March and to Talwar Art Gallery for A Balasubramaniam’s solo in spring.