The artists on exhibition are Dakshinamurthy, D L N Reddy, S G Vasudev, T Vaikuntam, Haridasan, P Srinivasan, B G Sailesh and K M Adimoolam, who are all already known to art buyers in Delhi and Mumbai. But other artists, like Suresh Jairam, N Karunamoorthy, J M S Mani, Surekha, Chandranath Acharya, Bhawani Shankar, Sreekanth Kurva, Binoy Verghese, T M Aziz, S Easter Raj, Anuradha Nalapat, Uma Gautama and P Gopinath are hardly known, if at all.

What should attract the buyer to this show is the fact that South Indian artists, by and large, are less highly priced than those of either Mumbai, or Delhi, while being as good. This gives them the same sort of advantage Indian art has over its European counterparts. As such, they aregood investment.

The range is considerable. With Yussuf Arakhal and Hari Dasan at Rs 1 lakh and Rs 80,000 at the top, we come to T Vaikuntam at Rs 55,000, D L N Reddy at Rs 40,000, and Dakshinamoorthy at Rs 30,000 in the middle range. And there is a large number of artists at Rs 25,000, and below, like Chandranath Acharya, Anuradha Nalapat, K M Adimoolam, T Suresh Jairam, Gopinath, J M S Mani, P Srinivasan, B V Sailesh, T M Aziz and Surekha. Obviously, there is much that is affordable.

The works that catch the eye are the wooden sculptures of D L N Reddy at Rs 35,000 each. They are a kind of amalgam of small pieces of wood that impart a sense of motion to the works, especially the images of horses.

Vaikuntam's work also is likely to sell at Rs 55,000. His very particular portrayal of rural people of Andhra is very much in demand. In fact, two works of his, exhibited at the Arushi Arts mega-show at the India Habitat Center in Delhi, sold within an hour of the show opening. So there is every reason toexpect this work to sell as well.

T M Aziz's work, some of it priced as low as Rs 1,000, is another artist whose figurative works are bound to attract collectors with their clear line. But personally, I found the graphic by D L N Reddy of a woman and a man-animal at Rs 8,000 one of the better works in the show as a whole. This ought to be among the first works to be sold.

But it is the work of Chandranath Acharya that I found rivetting. It is realist, with expressionist overtones. But it is the subject matter of his paintings that picks them out. He has painted street-children, their struggle to live and the attitudes they strike. He has brought before us a very important part of our lives, which art cannot ignore. His images will be something that will persevere. And at Rs 25,000 each, the two works he has on show should find collectors who are strong enough to live with reality and not run away from it. Indeed, a perusal of this exhibition convinces one that art from the South needs a much closer lookthan we have given it so far.