Last week, Jaya Asokan, the fair’s former head of exhibitor relations, took over as director of the IAF. Her aim, she has said, is to “drive business and define the purpose of the future editions”. There is to be a new website and new partnerships. And education initiatives, artist commissions and pop-up programmes designed to turn the 13-year-old trade event into a year-round effort to increase audiences for Indian art.
Some of this was already a work in progress. Asokan’s predecessor Jagdip Jagpal played a consolidating role in her three years on the job. Under Jagpal, at least 70% of exhibitor space was reserved for Indian galleries. Art spaces from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka gave it broader sub-continental identity. There was greater focus on performance art and there was an art bookshop.