Whetting the Appetite

The Indian art market will soon be in full swing with three auctions coming up in New York City next month. Buyers, sellers, and those simply interested in where prices might go next, will be watching sales results closely to see if such works will continue their torrid climb. A preview follows for those who have been anticipating some sales action after a long summer layoff.

On September 19, Sotheby’s will hold its auction of Indian art, including miniatures and modern paintings, featuring M. F. Husain's Pagan Mother (estimated between $500,000 and $700,000), as well as an Untitled (Horse), oil on canvas (est. $200,000-250,000). Also being offered is The Other Space, an important painting by R. Broota estimated at $600,000-800,000, an untitled work by V.S. Gaitonde estimated at $500,000-700,000, and a untitled work by S.H. Raza (est. $280,000-380,000). The offering of approximately 118 lots is expected to bring in between $6.4 million and $9.4 million.

Paintings, sculptures, photographs and video art by Subodh Gupta and Mrinalini Mukherjee are among the highlights of the September 21st sale of Contemporary Art South Asia: India and Pakistan. One, an untitled life-sized sculpture depicting an Indian family on a motorcycle created by Gupta, is set to go for $200,000-250,000. This sale is estimated to bring in between $1.9 million and $2.6 million total.

Christie’s will hold their South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale on the morning of September 20th with their usual proliferation of exceptional works from the Progressive Artists’ Group masters. Included among them, Husain’s Iguanic (estimated to sell at $220,000 – 280,000), F. N. Souza’s Nude with Fruit (est. $300,000 – 500,000), and a Raza Bindu (est. $180,000 – 220,000).

Also set for bidding include works by Jamini Roy, Manjit Bawa, Aripa Signh, T. V. Santosh, Ram Kumar, B. Prabha, among many others. Christie’s catalogue of the approximately 145 lots can be viewed at their website.

It should be exciting to see how Indian contemporary and modern art prices fare as we move into the latter half of 2007.

Kamal Mitra Breaks Out

Progressive Artists Group painters, legendary. Second-generation Indian artists making their mark. And there are others standing in the wings, waiting to join them.

44-year old Kamal Mitra, born in Kolkata, a 1989 graduate in painting from Govt. College of Art & Craft, Calcutta and a 1993 Post Graduate in Graphic Art from Kala Bhavan, Viswabharati, Santiniketan, is one of these. With many exhibitions in India and New York already under his belt and an armful of distinguished awards bestowed upon him, including one for Graphic Art from Karnataka Lalit Kala Academy in 1993, he is certainly posed to become a respected name in that genre.

The dexterity with which Mitra handles his medium is remarkable. His compositions and palette have a dark undertone that lends a mysterious and tense quality to his paintings. His works use liminal spaces that float between the real and the fantasy, taking the viewer through a journey that blurs the boundaries of reality, like the untitled acrylic on canvas pictured here.

“His works are totally on the cutting edge,” one eminent Indian art collector said of Mitra, who is just starting to get noticed in the United States for his portentous acrylic paintings. “You might not have seen him at the auctions yet, but you will definitely see him in the near future.”

The time may be here when Kamal Mitra breaks out into the big time.

Images courtesy of TamarindArt Gallery ©2007

Change of Seasons

Summer 2007 is quickly slip-sliding away. Before we know it, verdant trees of green will be flaunting their red, yellow, and orange leaves of autumn, heat and humidity will give way to cooler, more bearable temperatures, children will be trading swimsuits for school books. And so it goes—September will be upon us soon.

The Indian contemporary art scene will likewise be shaking off the summer doldrums, returning to form with several auctions and exhibits in the works. The first, Saffronart’s Autumn Online Auction will kick things off September 5 –6. For those who want to get an early jump on the action, their catalogue will become available online on Aug 14.

Also beginning on the 6th of next month, TamarindArt, a popular midtown Manhattan gallery, will present a solo exhibition of paintings by Kamal Mitra featuring exquisite paintings that were showcased at their sold out show last November. On Wednesday, the 19th, they will host a cocktail reception for the special and ongoing show.

A major exhibition of photography and video art depicting contemporary India will be presented at Newark Museum in New Jersey beginning 19 September. The show, titled Public Places, Private Spaces: Contemporary Photography and Video Art, comprises over 100 works by 28 photographers and video artists, reflecting the interior and exterior realities of today's India. Photographers and artists represented include Raghu Rai, the late Raghubir Singh, Pablo Bartholomew, Vivan Sundaram, Ram Rahman and emerging talents such as Tejal Shah and Shilpa Gupta. According to the curators, this exhibition demonstrates India's "artistic vitality arising from extreme economic shifts, the pervasive influence of the media and cultural traditions competing with globalization".

And of course, fall Indian art auctions will be revving up at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York the third week of September. It should be interesting to see if prices pick up where they left off last spring.

These art events are just a few that will be occurring as the seasons change. Just enough to begin thinking about putting away the beach balls for another year and grabbing a rake.