Summer Wind Blows Hot at Saffronart

What won’t sell? That’s an intriguing question as Indian modern and contemporary art continues to remain a sizzling sellers’ market, as Saffronart’s annual Online Summer Auction 2008 has once again reminded collectors. Held June 18 –19, works by the PAG masters, regardless of the medium, are still highly sought after, as are artists who arrived on the Indian art scene later. Of the 90 lots that sold, 69% went down the hammer at above their pre-auction estimate.

The prices heated up early on with an oil and ink on canvas of a figurative horse painted by MF Husain selling for $201,250*, a cubism piece titled Dark Silhouettes, The Moon by Jehangir Sabavala for $146,625, and two FN Souza oils on board going for $232,300 and $218,500. One of the most revolutionary of India’s modernists, Jagdish Swaminathan’s untitled oil on canvas doubled estimates and sold for $460,000.

Next up were artists born during or after the 1940’s. A painting by Manjit Bawa finished at $117,875, Atul Dodiya’s mixed media piece Each Father Lost-III at $201,250, Rashid Rana’s Red Carpet – 2 for a hot half million dollars, TV Santhosh’s untitled work tripling estimates at $140,875, Jagannath Panda’s acrylic on canvas, The Urbanscape III, for $129,375, and Jitish Kallat’s Rubber Hammer for $197,225. Also performing well were works by Barl Kumar, Anant Joshi, Jayashree Chakravarty, Meera Mukherjee, KM Adimoolam, and Bose Krishnamachari.

Prices midway through the two-day auction caught fire when SH Raza’s acrylic work Germination, an outstanding combination of line, color and shape, sold for $1,056,250, and Subodh Gupta’s untitled oil on canvas of shimmering stainless steel pots and pans sold five times the estimate at an unbelievable $1,427,500. Also smoking were Hema Upadhyay’s mixed media on paper, Bleeding Hearts ($133,975), Justin Ponmany’s mixed media on canvas Riverbed ($235,750), an untitled oil on canvas by Jagdish Swaminathan ($218,500), other works by Husain and Souza, and a Bikash Bhattacharjee that sold for $132,250.

Prices cooled a bit for the remaining lots, but still managed solid numbers for other Indian contemporary artists. A bronze untitled bust by Akbar Padamsee sold for $34,500, Himmat Shah’s bronze Head of a King for $47,150, a Lalu Prasad Shaw tempera on handmade paper for $25,300, and an untitled K M Adimoolam oil on canvas for $27,025.

As summer officially begins and the art auction world relaxes some, it still seems as though the market for anything Indian—regardless of artist or medium—continued to be dominant for the first half of the year. Autumn will bring cooler temperatures, but hopefully the heat drawn from these prices will remain throughout the remainder of the year.

*Winning bids include buyer’s premium