This is the continuation of a welcome tradition of even private galleries contributing to art history, which had at one time been left almost exclusively to government bodies or academia. Already we have a number of such monographs: The Vadhera Art Gallery has sponsored books of M F Husain, S H Raza and Ram Kumar; CIMA on Ganesh Pyne; the Academy of Literature and Fine Art on Arpana Caur, and Sidharth Tagore on the anti-Brahmanical artistic expression of Sovi Savarkar.

These are only a few of the private efforts to fill in the gap that the state monopoly of art history leaves out, something that the media revolution has contributed to the art market. It is evident that these privately produced works have their own bias. That is onlyto be expected. But it still fills an important information gap which ultimately benefits the art buyer.

Generally, the monographs concentrate on contemporary artists, especially the younger ones. These are precisely the ones that the bureaucracy overlooks. But these monographs are invaluable to the art buyer to protect himself from the pitfalls of stocking-up on officially sponsored art, which is usually the worst investment. The Vadheras, for instance, have concentrated on the Bombay group, the most saleable of all our contemporary artists.

On the other hand, others whose profiles have been published include Ganesh Pyne, who represents the zenith of the new Bengal art; Arpana Caur, who evolved the Pahari miniatures and other folk styles into contemporary radical art, and Savarkar, who represents a specific Dalit artistic expression that has developed in Western India as a sequel to the avant-garde Bombay group as well as the more austere Baroda artists vacillating between the folk and minimalistexpressions.

These monographs provide a good basis of tracing an artist's evolution. They help in dating the work and finally, in helping to shift the genuine works from the fakes. The existence of these monographs, while being the result of the growing NRI demand for contemporary Indian art all over the world, also informs their taste. Buyers are advised to collect works like these.

One of the most comprehensive such publications is the catalogue of the Glenbarra Museum in Fukuoka, Japan. This catalogue covers the most comprehensive collection of contemporary Indian art abroad and gives a good idea of what the NRI art market approximates to. Such a copy in the hands of the buyer is a good rule of thumb on what to buy and what to avoid.

How should the buyer use this literature? The buyer must first study the trends that are being highlighted, contrast and compare them with the trends reflected in official books on art and see how certain trends that emerge outside the official framework. For example,Ara's work was rejected by the Bombay Art Society in 1948 and now span both worlds, reflecting what may be said to have arrived. This is art that has proved itself.

With regard to individual artists as well, the buyer must concentrate on those whose work reflects a consistently high quality of execution as well as a record of even production over a period of time. In this respect, monographs that take into account the work of particular artists over a relatively long time-scale, with adequate visual presentation of their works, will serve the buyer well. From a sufficient knowledge of such monographs, the buyer can independently judge which trends and artists have potential for the future.

How does the buyer decide that? It is on the basis of the historical evolution of our contemporary art. Naturally, this history is very different from the history of Euro-American contemporary art but still part of a global phenomenon. For example, in our contemporary art, there is no hard and fast division between thefigurative and the abstract. Indian aesthetic tradition allows their coexistence.

So the real advance in our contemporary art was the marriage between radical western expressionism and the Indian folk traditions, a synthesis rather like that of late Matisse or Picasso's African inspired works or Chagall. It is a natural enough synthesis in the history of world contemporary art as well as that of India.

Also, the variety of living folk traditions in India allows for considerable originality of expression, so a considerable number of artists have made their mark in this genre. As such, the trend has both universality and originality. This has been the basis of the popularity of Indian art the world over.

That is why the price of path-breaking artists in this field like Jamini Roy, Ram Kinkar Baij, M F Husain, F N Souza or Ganesh Pyne have held their ground over the years. The new monographs, however, will help us to see how this major trend is developing and what other trends are likely to emerge.

Thiswill doubtless help the art buyer. That neither the galleries nor the government has a monopoly of taste makes the art market a safer place to tread. This is a good thing for our contemporary art market and its success in visible today.