Prices Remain Steady at New York Auctions

Sotheby’s and Christie’s held their annual Indian modern and contemporary art spring sales this week in the Big Apple with very few surprises—even with two works breaking the million dollar mark.

There were no great shakes at Sotheby’s Indian Art Wednesday morning session. Of the 89 lots up for bid, 27% went unsold, including three works by Krishen Khanna, three by F. N. Souza, two Akbar Padamsees’, two Jogen Chowdhurys’, a Raza and one M. F. Husain. Still, the 65 pieces that went down the hammer garnered a total take of $5,106,875USD*.

The big winner of the day was a Husain oil on canvas dated 1953, a seminal period when the artist was still discovering his language and style. Composed with the rhythmic, confident line that later became his trademark, the Untitled piece sold for $409,000. Not far behind was Souza’s Head of a Man, which finished at $313,000. Seven other paintings from members of the Progressive Artists Group finished in the quarter million dollar range, hardly eyebrow-raising after the past few years of escalating prices.

Rounding out the big numbers, Jagdish Swaminathan's iconic 1971 Untitled landscape featuring flat planes of saturated yellows and orange delineating and detailing a deeply spiritual reverence for the unrealized universe, sold over pre-estimated values at $229,000. An unsettling rare self-portrait and a comment on the inevitable decay of the human body by Rameshwar Broota finished at $169,000; Jehangir Sabavala’s oil and acrylic on canvas, The Bridge, for $163,000; and Anjlie Ela Menon’s Goat People for $121,000.

Other artists faring well were three oils from B. Phabha (selling in the range of $32,200 to $44,200), George Keyt ($32,200/$20,000), Shanti Dave ($25,000), Gulam Rasool Santosh ($51,400), Sakti Burman ($67,000), Manu Parekh ($49,000), Avinash Chandra ($63,400), A. R. Chugtai ($79,000), Ambadas ($46,600), and Arpana Caur ($49,000).

Thursday’s 10:00AM South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction at Christie's produced more of the same, although two resoundingly broke the seven-figure mark. M. F. Husain’s The Battle of Ganga and Jamuna, one of his most significant works to appear at auction, sold for a staggering $1,609,000. Ram Kumar’s oil on board, Vagabond, whose forlorn and isolated figures with strained postures are linked to the angular jagged shapes of the cityscape and buildings, sold for $1,161,000. Coming in at a distant third was a Tyeb Mehta work at a still respectable $657,000.

Works by other PAG masters in various mediums also sold well, as has been the trend the past half-decade. What is becoming the thing to watch in Indian art, however, are the prices being generated by those who are following in their footsteps. Younger artists such as T. V. Santhosh for example, whose oil on canvas diptych fetched $337,000, an Untitled for $85,000; Rameshwar Broota’s Traces of Man I, for $265,000; Atul Dodiya’s Untitled work of ironic juxtaposition for $217,000, his Red Loves Peas for $157,000.

And on down the line--Ganesh Pyne’s Untitled tempera on canvas work symbolizing his tranquil-obsession with death sold for $127,000; Jagannath Panda’s Untitled oil on canvas featuring a peacock being forced out of its natural habitat finished at $133,000, his Behind the Meeting Place II for $109,000; Chintan Upadhyay’s New Breed Hybrid for $75,400; a Jitish Kallat and a Jamini Roy each selling for $73,000.

At Christie’s, only 17 of the available 131 lots were passed, with a total final total take of $10,974,600.

The New York sales may have proven two things as we make it through the early part of 2008—art prices by the Indian masters are not coming down, while works by contemporary artists seem to be catching up . . . fast.

*All prices in US Dollars include the buyer's premium and are rounded to the nearest dollar.