Superlative Works Get their Due at Sotheby’s

The third and final New York City fall Indian art auction took place on 21st September with Sotheby’s Contemporary Art South Asia sale, and ended the week with quite a buzz. The morning session had 80 lots up for sale; of these, 35 (60%) surpassed their pre-estimated range, with some selling well—very, very well.

Buyers seemed to be in a discriminating mood, more discerning in their tastes, as 21 lots (26%) were passed in favor of break-through artists who are generating prices the PAG did not too long ago. For starters, Zarina Hashmi’s cast paper piece Phool, estimated at $15,000 - $20,000 finished at $73,000*, a Shobha Broota untitled oil on canvas for $61,000 (est. $8,000 - $12,000), and G. Ravinder Reddy’s pigment and gold leaf on terracotta bust for $70,600. Other names making their mark were Jyothi Basu (untitled oil on canvas, $82,600), Jayashree Chakravarty (her large-scale 'scroll' painting Space Within, $61,000), and Rashid Rana (The World is Not Enough, $91,000).

Midway through, bidding skyrocketed for exceptional works by exceptional artists. The final hammer fell for Subodh Gupta’s mixed media life-size sculpture of a family on a Vespa at $277,000, Chintan Upadhyay’s installation with thirty-three sculptures titled New Indians at $529,000, a TV Santhosh oil on canvas for $205,000 (est. $20,000- $30,000), and the show-stopper, Atul Dodiya’s Father, an enamel paint on metal roller shutters, acrylic and marble dust on canvas piece that came in at an eye-popping $601,000 (est. $230,000 - $280,000). Another work by Dodiya, Man From Kabul sold later on for $313,000.

Other artists who may be making a name for themselves, as this sale suggests, are Ashim Purkayastha, Abir Karmakar, Jitish Kallat, Justin Ponmany, Sonia Khurana, Shibu Natesan, GR Iranna, and Farhad Hussain.

Collectors and dealers of Indian contemporary art might be driven by demand for strong artworks with an outstanding provenance, created by talented artists; whatever the case, total sales for this day were a very nice $3,202,300. Include Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions earlier in the week, and that figure rises just shy of $20,000,000. A very good three-day tally for artwork of this still-growing and dynamic art market.

* All prices include Buyer's Premium

Christie’s NY Brings Out the Buyers

For those who thought that prices might have reached their peak and may be starting on a downward trend, a paraphrased quote from American humorist Mark Twain might be in order: “The report of my (insert ‘the Indian art market’) demise has been greatly exaggerated”—at least at Christie’s September 20th South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction. Buyers threw all caution to the wind during the morning session, which brought in a total of $10,115,050*.

Consider that of the 110 lots sold, 70% went down the hammer above their pre-sale estimates. Consider that Arpita Singh’s free-floating composition The Eternal Repose sold for $253,000, TV Santhosh’s Across an Unresolved Story went for $217,000 and his Rats and Man Made Famine III for $91,000 (both estimated at $30,000 - $40,000), and that Atul Dodiya’s oil and acrylic on canvas Three Painters topped out at a whopping $541,000 (est. $150,000 - $200,000). And that’s not counting other “secondary artists” as well as works by the Progressives. It was a great day for the genre.

The morning session began with three Jamini Roy gouaches doubling their estimates, with prices extending early on with MF Husain’s Indian village life-themed Birds-in-Tree that sold for $361,000 and an untitled work for $301,000. Other PAG artists fared as strongly with FN Newton’s sublime depiction of the female form entitled Nude with Fruit surpassing the half million-dollar estimate, selling for $657,000, another untitled nude for $457,000, while his Townscape went for $265,000. Later, three Ram Kumar’s sold for $181,000. $193,000 and $337,000; an SH Raza Bindu for $217,000 and his La Terre for $421,000. Top draw of this sale was Tyeb Mehta’s Mahishasura, which closed at $1,105,000.

Prices sustained throughout, with Chintan Upadhyay’s Sorry Does Not Make Any Difference I falling at $91,000, KCS Paniker’s Words and Symbols for $43,000 (est. $3,000 - $5,000), an Anish Kapoor watercolor for $51,400, Biren De’s April ’73 for $85,000, Bikash Bhattacharjee’s A Social Gathering for $181,000, a Ravinder Reddy polyester, resin, and fiberglass bust for $187,000. The buying surge carried through to the end with an untitled watercolor on paper laid down on cloth by Avinash Chandra selling for $145,000, Shibu Natesan’s Montage I for $157,000, and Rameshwar Broota’s A Chance Encounter for $265,000.

Perhaps the one nadir at Christie’s was that 33 (23%) lots were passed including works by Husain, Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Pabhakar Kolte among some less familiar names; nonetheless, the day’s results suggests that the Indian contemporary art market remains a strong and vibrant one, with no adjustment in values yet.

*All prices quoted include the buyer's premium and are rounded to the nearest dollar

Status Quo at Sotheby’s

New York fall Indian art sales kicked off September 19th at Sotheby’s with no great surprises, as most pieces that were sold came in at their pre-estimated prices. The final total was $6,311,738*, just under the estimated low end, but this would have certainly pushed much higher if 28 of the available 114 lots (25%) were not passed, including big-ticket works by VS Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, FN Souza, and Jogen Chowdhury. Keeping with recent trends, non-Progressive artists continue to perform well and nearly half the lots (45%) were of mediums other than oil on canvas.

Early on, it looked like buyers might be in a no-holds barred spending mood with a Rabindranath Tagore untitled tempera on handmade paper selling for $55,000 (est. $15,000 - $20,000 USD), three Jamini Roy tempera on card doubling their estimates, and an SH Raza watercolor and pencil on paper selling at $37,000, but then the tempo slowed somewhat. Six MF Husains’ sold well—3 over the estimates, 3 reaching them, including his Pagan Mother, an exquisite work painted mostly in blue, with the figure delineated by thick black lines, and highlighted with flashes of white and terracotta that went for $657, 000 (est. $500,000 - $700,000). An Akbar Padamsee emotive untitled nude fell for $181,000, a watercolor by the same artist was passed, and a bronze sculptured head went for $20,000.

After a Gaitonde oil went unsold (est. $500,000 – $700,000), prices rebounded nicely with four SH Razas’ that finished well, including an untitled acrylic on canvas going for $409,000; two Kumars’ going for $181,000 and $145,000 respectively, and most Souza works of various mediums going in their pre-sale range (although four were passed including Still Life with Three Fish, est. at a half millions dollars, high end). Rameshwar Broota’s monochromatic work The Other Space, created by the artist’s unusual and painstaking technique of scraping paint from the canvas, sold well at $601,000. A Jagdish Swaminathan untitled oil fell at $241,000.

Keeping with the latest trend, prices for India’s “second-tier” artists continue to inch upward. Four Shanti Dave oil and encaustic painting sold on average of just under $14,000, an untitled Sohan Qadri for $27,400 (quadrupling estimates), two Prabhakar Barwe enamels for $55,000 and $73,000, a Mohan Samant for $39,400, Abdul-Rahiman Appabhai Almelkar’s Two Women for $23,750, two Badri Narayan works for $22,500 each, and a Bikash Bhattacharjee untitled oil on canvas going down very well at $121,000.

Other names that garnered attention—and good numbers—in this sale included Satish Gujral, Gulam Rasool Santosh, B. Vithal, Reddeppa M. Naidu, Krishnaji Shamrao Kulkarni, Manjit Bawa, Balraj Khanna, Rabin Mondal, and Arpana Caur.

The morning session concluded with ten lots painted pre-20th century, with Herman Linde’s Girl Standing in a Veranda Wearing a Pochampalli Sari the highlight, selling at $133,000.

Overall, interest—and buying—remains high for this genre, although no records were broken on this cool, sunny day in mid-town Manhattan.

* All prices quoted include buyer’s premium

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.

A Unique Week in New York

The dog days of summer are generally uneventful ones in the Indian contemporary art world--major spring auctions have passed, upcoming fall sales remain in the planning stages. It is a usually a time for relaxation, vacations, and beating the heat.

Not so in New York, as two exceptional events unfolded in the week just ended. The first occurred on the evening of July 10, when TamarindArt Gallery, 142 East 39th Street in Manhattan, held a reception kicking off their show Of Images and Illusions. Of course, exhibition openings are commonplace; not so, however, when an artist of legendary stature makes a guest appearance. On this night, 92-year old M. F. Husain was present, mingling with those fortunate enough to have been in attendance for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Mr. Husain, still remarkably lively, his trademark flowing white hair and beard neatly cropped short, offered appreciation of the paintings showcasing the work of five of India’s most talented young artists of this generation: Pappu Bardhan, Pratul Dash, Chhatrapati Dutta, Chandrima Bhattacharyya, and Mahjabin Majumdar, the latter two who were also present. In an interview with The Indian Star reporter Lalit K. Jha, he also mentioned that although he is currently living in Dubai, he can return to India anytime he wants, and is not living in self-imposed exile due to his controversial paintings that have inflamed Hindu fundamentalists there. (Click here to read entire article.)

The summer show Of Images and Illusions—which brings together human imagery in greatly different styles and execution—will be on display at TamarindArt until August 11.

A second significant event occurred yesterday morning at Sotheby’s, where a special auction was held to raise awareness and funding for the construction of The Kolkata Museum of Modern Art. The mega project is designated as the first national art museum in India, and whose mission will to collect, preserve and exhibit national and international works of fine art from the 18th century to contemporary art.

Lots that were part of the benefit sale included paintings, sculptures and photographs by Tyeb Mehta, Jehangir Sabavala, Somnath Hore, Sakti Burman, Ram Kumar, F.N Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Jogen Chowdhury, Ganesh Pyne, Arpita Singh, Rameshwar Broota, Paresh Maity, Subodh Gupta, Chintan Upadhyay, Baiju Parthan and Dayanita Singh among others.

When the final hammer came down, over $1.5 million USD were raised for the sprawling complex that will encompass 10 acres and will have four major sections: National Galleries, Western Galleries, Far Eastern Galleries and a large academic wing to promote research, conservation and curatorial practices. This was the first time that over 70 artists, various galleries, private individuals, and an international auction house have come together to support a national art museum in India.

Despite a week of sweltering mid-July temperatures, New York City seemed the cool place to be in regards to Indian art, artists, galleries, and museums.