Sunday, February 17, 2013

Indian Art comes to International Auction in over a decade

RAZA

On 19 March 2013, Sotheby’s is honored to present the Amaya Collection - the first international Evening Sale of Indian Art and the first single-owner sale in this category to be held at Sotheby’s in more than a decade. Consigned by esteemed collector and author, Amrita Jhaveri, the collection comprises important Modern & Contemporary Indian Art produced during the second half of the 20th Century through to the early 21st.

The sale offers some fine examples from the oeuvres of key artists, including highly sought-after and important works by 20th Century Modernist Masters Maqbool Fida Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Francis Newton Souza, Sayed Haider Raza, and  Vasudeo Gaitonde, many of which have been extensively published and exhibited internationally. The auction of 43 lots is estimated at approximately $5 - 7 million, and works will be exhibited in New Delhi, London and New York in advance of the sale. Proceeds from the sale will underwrite a project space and lecture room at Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi. Amrita Jhaveri is also supporting museum initiatives in the collecting area of South Asian art by donating a work by sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee to the Tate Modern.

The sale is led by Tyeb Mehta’s Untitled (est. $800,000/1.2 million, right) from 1982, produced during an important period in the artist’s career. Painted three years before the famous Santiniketan Triptych, the current work possesses a number of key parallels. In both works he used an unusually muted palette, and the androgynous figures are placed against a distinctive pastel blue ground. Mehta spent the early 1960s in London where he was exposed to the style of Francis Bacon, which greatly influenced his early works


Tyeb Mehta - Untitled


A further highlight is Rajasthan I (est. $600,000/800,000, top of page 1), a resplendent work by Sayed Haider Raza  from the  1980s which  brings together his influences from France and India  to represent an ultimate depiction of nature. This painting is from a period that represents his transgression towards total abstraction and is influenced by the Indian miniature tradition not just in composition but also in palette.

The 1962 painting, Untitled (est. $600,000/800,000, left) by Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, one of India’s most important modern abstract painters, was one of few canvases produced during his lifetime. His work was greatly influenced by the color techniques of Indian miniatures, the study of ancient scripts and Japanese Zen philosophy.


Puppet Dancers, MF Hussain


Painted in 1963, The Puppet Dancers (est. $200,000/300,000,) represents Maqbool  Fida  Husain’s  fascination  with  toys,  a  theme  that  he  developed during the 1940s and 1950s. While working at the Fantasy furniture company in   Bombay   in   the early 1940s to make ends meet, he began to design and paint children’s toys, which he cut from plywood and hand painted. Although Husain only produced the toys for a short period, his interest in the subject lived on. This composition is very similar to a 1950s preparatory sketch he produced for one of his plywood toys. A distinctive set of characters that he employed throughout his career are also seen in this piece: faceless woman, equine figure, tribhanga nude and mustachioed warrior

Additional Collection Highlights


Francis Newton Souza

The Cruxifixion, Souza



The Crucifixion  - Estimate $200/300,000
The Crucifixion is a powerful painting that represents Souza’s fascination with religion that continued throughout his career. This painting is one of his largest and most evocative portrayals of the subject.

Bhupen Khakhar
Satsang - Estimate $180/250,000

In Satsang, Khakar depicts a Hindu gathering with a group of male figures paying their respects. He has placed himself within the narrative, both seated amongst the seated figures to the right and at the rear of the primary standing figure in the foreground. Highly influenced by his time in London and his friendship with David Hockney and Sir Howard Hodgkin, Khakar combines the lush evocative scenery with hues relating to folk traditions.

Maqbool Fida Husain
The Horse that Looked Back - Estimate $100,000/150,000

Throughout his career, Husain has repeatedly represented the horse in his works, and they are depicted as wild symbols of power and raw energy. His interest in horses first began in his youth through religious stories relayed to him by his grandfather depicting the animal as both heroic and tragic. This 1963 composition was exhibited at the 2006 Asia House exhibition, M. F. Husain: Early Masterpieces 1950s – 70s.

Arpita Singh
Untitled - Estimate $80,000/120,000
Arpita Singh, one of the most important mid-generation female artists, often portrays the role of the female within contemporary Indian society in her humorous and disturbing paintings. Her subjects are drawn from family, friends, neighbors and everyday objects. Singh was greatly influenced by Marc Chagall, not just in palette and composition, but also in imagery.

Ram Kumar

Untitled  - Estimate $60,000/80,000
Untitled from 1959 belongs to Ram Kumar’s early figurative phase, which not only reflects his disillusionment with the monotony and anonymity of urban existence, but is also part of a larger commentary on the unrealized promises of Independence which had held hope for a better life for millions of Indians. The figures in these paintings are reminiscent of the forlorn characters he portrays in his novel, Ghar Bane Ghar Toote, which depict the isolated and despairing urbanites of India who feel constrained by the city itself, its vast faceless population and the poverty and decay that surround them.



Jogen Chowdhury
Ganesh with Crown Estimate - $40,000/60,000

Chowdhury’s subjects are usually rendered against a black background, their fluid contours tightened with cross- hatching and heightened with touches of color. This 1979 work is part of the Ganesha series that he produced during the end of his tenureship where he plays on the popular characterization of the elephant god. Ganesh with Crown was formerly in the Chester and Davida Herwitz collection and was exhibited at Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, in 1982


Monday, February 11, 2013

Women of Indian Art




Here is another one in the series of profiling top Indian artists. The first one I created was about the top selling (auction) Modern Artists of India. The second one is solely dedicated to the talent and brilliant Women of Indian Art. Here is the introduction, behind which there behind the scenes profile of each of them. The profiles explain their idiosyncracies, their styles, the evolution of their careers, etc.



This feature is dedicated to the most accomplished and admirable women artists of India. Nowadays, women artist of India are treated on an equal platform with male artists, the respect given to the women artist are same..

This is however not always the case, back in the 40s, women were not put on the same pedestal as male artists, except for Amrita-Sher-gel who had her foreign descent and brazen attitude (& of course talent) to bolster her image among the artist community. It was in the 70s that the stature of women artists were elevated artist among the art community and patrons.

However, this feature portrays the women who made a difference in the art scene and were recognized for the art rather than gender. Great art has come out of the hands of women artists like Anjolie Ela Menon, Aprita Singh, Devayani Krishan , Asma Menon, Gogi Sarojpal and most famous of all Amrita Sher-gil.

Most of these artists had women subjects as their centre of inspiration – their portrayal of women were primarily to show the daily activities and travails they faced in society and there was no emphasis on sensuality of the subject. Many of them fought tradition to follow their passion of the arts.

We will be featuring more women artist in due time. You can read in detail about each artists life, idiosyncrasies and events that made them where they are today.
Read their profiles here



Saturday, January 26, 2013

The $100 million paintings








Would you pay more than $100 million for an artwork? Well most of us would not, the primary reason being that, most of us would not be able to afford it. However, it is quite intriguing to learn what goes through the mind of people who spend millions on an artwork.

Let us look at it this way, for a Multibillionaire spending $100 million is not a big deal, its less than 10% of the person’s total wealth. Most probably, such people have already exhausted all the different investment avenues and have turned to art. There are corporate houses that acquire art as an investment that also helps in creating a pleasant work atmosphere. Art, although a (very) long investment, can yield excellent returns, if you have the patience.

Below given are some of the unbelievable and surreal prices paid for art in the 21st century:

Andy Warhol’s ‘No.5, 1948’ claimed the highest value for a painting auctioned at $140 million in 2006

• Gustav Klimt’s ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I’ sold for $135 million in the year 2006

• Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ sold for $119.9 million at Sotheby’s New York in May 2011.

• Pablo Picasso’s ‘Nude, Green Leaves and Bust’ sold for $106.5 million Christie’s in New York in 2010

• Picasso’s ‘Boy with a Pipe’ raised $104.2 million at auction in 2004

• Albert Giacometti’s ‘L’Homme Qui Marche’ reached $102.7 million when it was sold in 2010 (Sculpture)

• Andy Warhol’s silk screen printing of Elvis, called ‘Eight Elvises’ was auctioned for $100 million in 2009

If you noticed, I have limited the paintings to the minimum price of $100 million. There are many more paintings from the masters in the range of $50-$100 million dollars.

Imagine this, most of us fuss over a painting that costs $10,000. Life is not fair, but I guess most people need to settle for paintings in the affordable ranges. Some of these can be a very good investment. Important tip, in this category the investors better like what they buy, as its going to be with them for a long long time.

For the ones who like it, it could be a pleasurable hobby and investment. The art market will grow once we are over the recession cliff. So my advice is to buy contemporary art while the prices are low.

Happy Art Investing….in 2013



Interesting Links:

List of the world’s most expensive paintings