However, certain patterns are discernible. While established artists like M F Husain have lost their virtual monopoly of position to upcoming younger artists like Ganesh Pyne, the taste is still very much entrenched in the figurative tradition so central to our art for thousands of years. Other discernible trends are: narrative art with a folk imagery and a lyrical execution. This taste of our national movement, whose backbone was a militant peasantry, seems to have stoodus in good stead in the age of globalisation as well.

That is why, if one looks at the catalogues of Christie's over the last three years, one sees M F Husain, with 11 works up for sale in 1995, 18 in 1997 and 13 in 1998, still managing to maintain a lead, but only just. Pyne is catching up fast, though. Starting with only four works for sale in 1995, he has inched forward steadily to 11 in 1997 and remains at that number in 1998. Clearly, if one looks at the Husain-Pyne duo, it is Pyne who is on the upswing.

In the second block, we have Husain's old friend, Souza, with a tally of only two works up for sale in 1995, to 14 in 1997 and now down to a modest nine works. Another artist who makes it to the top of this block is Anjolie Ela Menon, with six works up for sale in 1995, and 1997, but only four this time. Of the abstract artists, all of whom fall in this category, S H Raza, again of the Bombay group, rises from a tally of three in 1995, to five in 1997 and eight this time. Close behind him, we haveanother of the Bombay group, V S Gaitonde, with two works up for sale in 1995, four in 1997 and three in 1998.

Another abstract artist, Ram Kumar, seems to have established himself in this block too. With five works up for sale in 1995 and 1997, he's only slightly down at four today. Even among the abstract artists, we find a preference for those whose abstractions are traditionally comprehensible as symbols or those that refer to landscapes. Abstractions per se has not caught on. That is because our art history, with its liberal and radical tradition, never needed the kind of formal statements the West had to make to free its art from academism.

This radical tradition is probably why controversy does not harm our sales. Rather, it enhances the price of works that generate debate. No wonder the most expensive work up for sale this year is Hussain's Cobalt Elephant priced close to Rs 14 lakh. Obviously, the ding-dong battle going on around his work has little effect on his market. Other radical works upfor sale are: Gaganendra Nath Tagore's Political Sea Scape depicting the irony of the support of Indian maharajas and the like for the British war effort during World War I. This work is priced at Rs 3.5 lakh.

Then there are a couple of excellent works of K K Hebbar of the mid-70s, one entitled Holocaust priced at a high of Rs 8.3 lakh, which should not be difficult to achieve, given the topicality of his artistic protest against the 1974 nuclear explosion at Pokhran. The other war scene, also a protest painting, should fetch something close to Rs 4 lakh. The inclusion of such works in a major auction shows us how the controversy surrounding radical art has brought it on the world scene too.

This is evident from the fact that even where academic or other forms of realist art are chosen, revivalist works, such as those of Ravi Varma heve given place to radical ones like those of Bikash Bhattacharjee. Also, the profoundly cosmopolitan character of our art comes out clearly when we see Ganesh Pyne, M FHusain, Anjolie Ela Menon, F N Souza, S H Raza and Shakti Burman at the core of our art. That this art will continue to be what it is, with perhaps a more radical stance, is visible in the emerging core group of artists like Manu Parekh, Jogen Choudhary, Arpana Caur, Paresh Maity and Arpita Singh.

This reflects the stability of the evolution of our contemporary artistic expression and it would be wise not to tamper with it as the self-styled culture sensors are trying to do, if we are to benefit from our initial success in the playing field of global art.