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.