An atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty has clouded the world as President Donald Trump has been making sweeping decisions most nonchalantly. The looming trade war is bound to impact the art world just as it is alarming and causing chaos in other industries and sectors. While art has not been part of the list yet, gallerists, artists and collectors have all been in a state of panic. Questions are being raised on the possible impact on the shipment of purchased artworks or the return of works being displayed at recent fairs and exhibitions.
Earlier this week the annual Art Basel and UBSGlobal Art Market Report for 2024 was published. A decline of 12% in global sales and a drastic 36% decline in contemporary art sales were reported by auction houses. The lowest in six years. The bewildering tariffs make me wonder how the global art world will thrive in such uncertain times.
Prior to these cascading trade losses, Hong Kong hosted the celebrated Art Basel last month on the 28th and 30th of March. In a spirit of inclusivity and cultural dynamism, the fair welcomed over 240 galleries and 91,000 visitors. India was one of the 42 countries present with five galleries partaking in the fair.
I have always been an admirer of artists who bring together age-old craft practices with a contemporary flair. The ability to seamlessly bridge the old and new is not one many can master. But Anant Art Gallery’s booth, which features Aisha Khalid’s solo exhibition, is a testament that she has achieved this skill. A neo-miniaturist, Aisha’s works celebrate the intricacies of miniature painting and the ateliers of the Mughal era as she adds her own creative expression to this celebrated art form.
Aisha Khalid in her home in Lahore, February 2025. Photography by Osama Doger for Art Basel
Alisan Fine Arts, Tradition Transformed, for Art Basel Hong Kong
Similarly, the booth at Alisan Fine Art explores how artists have reinvented traditional Chinese ink painting in the last seven decades. Displaying the works of eighteen artists across three generations, the exhibition, ‘Tradition Transformed’, shows the power of creativity and innovation in keeping age-old traditional art relevant even today.
Over the years, art fairs have become not only platforms for selling art but are also international melting pots for meeting like-minded people, exchanging ideas and viewpoints, collaborating and celebrating cultural unity in diversity. But the costs involved in partaking in fairs are not cheap and for avant-garde galleries, this may not be feasible. President Trump’s tariff levying game by whim and fancy may just threaten the partaking ones with costs of shipping and the movement of artworks being in jeopardy.
While the world awaits with bated breath what President Trump decides to do next, his lack of appreciation, interest and inclusive approach to the arts is a growing concern. The most recent one was the decision to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the United States as well as the withdrawal of over 1,200 cultural grants.
In an attempt to push back, the largest union of museum and library professionals in the States, which includes over 42,000 cultural workers, have filed a lawsuit against the White House. Museums and libraries are storehouses of knowledge, repositories of history and heritage bringing communities together. Would contemporary artists be able to draw inspiration from traditional mediums and art practices if leaders and patrons back then did not invest in or see the importance of the arts?
Perhaps President Trump is not aware of the repercussions of a nation without culture, art and history. What would the identity of a country be without its heritage? How does an individual explore the sensitive, finer and genteel aspects of one’s personality?
In a nation such as the United States where loneliness is a growing epidemic, the art sector has the power to build communities, integrating people to feel less alone. Art is an antidote to depression, the current malaise of the world. A country’s leaders are some of the most important stakeholders in shaping the cultural fabric of the nation as well as contributing to the cultural tapestry globally.
But who is to tell Trump this?