Art auctions heat up despite looming elections in India

The election juggernaut has started rolling and the Indian subcontinent is going to be mad in the frenzy of democracy over the next six weeks. While we would assume that everything else besides politics would pale into inconsequence - as it surely would - the world will not come to a halt. But the little pebbles in the path of the juggernaut, such as fine arts, would escape being crushed simply because they are so little as to even not come under the wheel.

All this means in simple language is that the auction season for modern Indian art, that had begun in earnest in March, still has enough steam left to deliver two world class auctions before this month bows out. And even though they arrive bang in the middle of a season saturated with political talk, they pack a punch with the lots on offer, which cannot be missed by any serious art enthusiast.

Pundole’s, the renowned auction house of Mumbai, will hold The Fine Art Sale in the city on April 25, while AstaGuru, another Mumbai-based auction house that promotes selling of art online at rather affordable rates, will put up the Masters Legacy auction on April 27-28 online.

The Fine Art Sale by Pundole’s, April 25

At its Fine Art Sale to be held in Mumbai on April 25, Pundole’s is offering a great selection of 71 lots, the star of which is a work by India’s first modern artist, Raja Ravi Varma. An oil on canvas showing a girl on a swing, and titled Mohini, it is estimated at Rs 10 crore – Rs 15 crore. This is a highly important work for various reasons, and therefore, it would not be a surprise if it eventually fetches much more than the estimate.

Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), as any lay admirer of art in this country would know, was the pioneer of modern art in India and we owe the current visual identity of Hindu gods to him as he painted almost the entire pantheon in brilliant hues, and prolifically enough to reach almost every Indian household. One of India’s nine National Treasure Artists, Varma’s works cannot be exported. This work hails from the Fritz Schleicher Family Collection. The auction catalogue mentions that this lot was acquired by German printmaker Fritz Schleicher in 1903, who was in Varma’s employ and to whom Varma sold his printing press. At this stage, the firm was renamed The Ravi Varma Fine Art Lithographic Works.

MF Husain’s 1971 oil on canvas, Glaze of an Icon, featuring his signature horse astride which is a nude female rider, is the next most expensive lot on offer. It is estimated at Rs 4 crore – Rs 6 crore. What makes this work iconic is the presence of two of Husain’s most recognised leitmotifs, the horse and the nude, in one picture frame.

At number three is a calm abstract work by Nasreen Mohamedi, evoking the works of Rajendra Dhawan and VS Gaitonde, which is estimated at Rs 3 crore – Rs 5 crore. This seminal work was exhibited at The Met New York and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid in 2015-2016 that catapulted Mohamedi to international consciousness. Last year, it was show in Mumbai at Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya.

Bindu-Peace by SH Raza, a 1998 acrylic on canvas, is next in terms of estimate, expected to fetch between Rs 1.50 crore – Rs 2.50 crore. Last month, a 1959 Raza work, Kalliste, had sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York for $5.6 million (approx. Rs 46.76 crore).

The top five art works are rounded off by Untitled (Bird, Tree and Mountain Series) by Jagdish Swaminathan, estimated at Rs 1.80 crore – Rs 2.20 crore. The auction features an eclectic collection of works by some of the best known names of Indian modern art, including among others, NS Bendre, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar, Rabindranath Tagore, Adi Davierwalla, B Prabha, Anjolie Ela Menon, Jangarh Singh Shyam and Pilloo Pochkhanawala.

AstaGuru’s Masters Legacy, April 27-28

Another Mumbai-based auction house, AstaGuru, is known for its online auctions that offer a mix of both haute masterpieces on the one hand and comparatively affordable masterpieces by India’s top masters on the other. At the upcoming auction, to be held online on April 27-28, the top lot on offer is a captivating work, Untitled (Hanuman). In Bawa’s characteristic stylisation and colour field scheme, it’s a brilliant work featuring Hanuman carrying the Dronagiri mountain bearing the Sanjivani booti to cure Laxman who had suffered injury in the battle of Ram against Ravana of Lanka. It is estimated at Rs 6.50 crore – Rs 8.50 crore.

A 1979 oil on canvas by MF Husain, Equus, featuring his leitmotif of horses, is the next most expensive work on offer. It is estimate to fetch Rs 4 crore – Rs 6 crore. It’s a bright, dazzling work by the self-taught artist, who remains the country’s most maverick, more than a decade after his passing.

At the same estimate is Jagdish Swaminathan’s Tantra-inspired work, Untitled (1992), expected to fetch Rs 4 crore – Rs 6 crore. It is a seminal work, not only from Swaminathan’s repertoire, but as a representative of the neo-Tantra art movement that gripped India from mid-1960s.

Yet another canvas with the same estimate, Rs 4 crore – Rs 6 crore, is a beautiful Untitled (Horses) work by M. F. Husain, bearing his signature horses, and also a signature female form clad in attire of rural India. In rich earth colours and solid Husain lines, it’s a fetching work that seems destined to bring happiness to anyone beholding it.

It's a work by SH Raza that is at the fifth spot in this list of top five at AstaGuru auction. Triangles, an acrylic on canvas from 1997, this work by Raza distils the abstract concepts of Indian philosophy that he had begun to explore since 1960s-70s. The smorgasbord carries colourful triangles in a specific, arranged order, with colours carefully placed on the canvas, to evoke the transcendental philosophy of ancient Indian texts.

The who’s who of Indian modern artists, such as Bikash Bhattacharjee, K Laxma Goud, NS Bendre, Sakti Burman, Krishen Khanna, FN Souza, Jogen Chowdhury, KH Ara and Sadanand Bakre, among others, are represented.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based senior journalist, columnist, and a commentator on art, books, society, and more)