Latest revision as of 07:22, 16 June 2018

[edit] 2018

[edit] Hemendranath Mazumdar, Sunayani Dev, manuscripts

Naomi Canton, World auction record for a Mazumdar, June 14, 2018: The Times of India

Untitled (Krishna), by the late Bengali painter Sunayani Dev
From: Naomi Canton, World auction record for a Mazumdar, June 14, 2018: The Times of India

Abhiman (Wounded Vanity), by the late Bengali painter Hemendranath Mazumdar
From: Naomi Canton, World auction record for a Mazumdar, June 14, 2018: The Times of India

Sales of Indian art at international auction house Christie’s in London have totalled Rs 12 crore (£1,350,000) in a single day.

The “Arts of India” sale at Christie’s London brought in £1,350,000 and the South Asian Modern and Contemporary Arts sale, which featured many Indian artists, totalled £4,526,500 (Rs 41 crore), making a sales total of Rs 53 crore (£5,876,500) on Tuesday. The sale takes place just twice a year, once in New York and once in London.

A world auction record was achieved for “Abhiman (Wounded Vanity)”, by the late Bengali painter Hemendranath Mazumdar, which sold over 15 times its pre-sale estimate at £548,750 (Rs 5 crore) on Tuesday, and a world record price was achieved for “Untitled (Krishna)”, by the late Bengali painter Sunayani Dev, which achieved £8,750 (Rs 8 lakh).

The top-selling lot was an illustrated manuscript of the Ramayana of Tulsi Das, made around 1795, signed by Ramcharan Kayasth, Jaipur School, north India. This manuscript attracted several bidders and was sold for £212,500 (Rs 2 crore) against a pre-sale estimate of £30,000-50,000.

A previously unseen sculpture by Ravinder Reddy, “Untitled (Goddess)”, an example of the artist’s now iconic representations of deified Indian women, estimated at £25,000-35,000, sold for £100,000 (Rs 90 lakh) in the South Asian sale.

The outsize reclining figure of a nude had been left by Reddy at Goldsmiths College in the early 1980s where he had studied as an exchange student.

“It was a very busy salesroom with much activity on the phones and from online bidders. Top prices were achieved across the sale from the early Bengal school, modernist landscapes to contemporary artists,” said Damian Vesey, head of the South Asian modern and contemporary Art London sale.

The next series of sales in this category will take place in New York in September, for which there will be a viewing of highlights in Mumbai on August 21 and 22. Christie’s is the only international auction house to have a permanent presence in India.

[edit] Tyeb Mehta, S H Raza

At ₹26cr, new record for a Tyeb, June 15, 2018: The Times of India

‘Kali’ became the fifth most expensive Indian painting sold at an auction
From: At ₹26cr, new record for a Tyeb, June 15, 2018: The Times of India

Artist Tyeb Mehta’s iconic works are back in the limelight. On Thursday, his Kali — a dramatic blue work depicting the Goddess with a red mouth — set a new world record for the artist at Rs 26.4 crore ($4m approx). It has also become the fifth most expensive Indian painting sold at an auction. Fellow modernist S H Raza took the top slot in March with a hammer price of Rs 29.3 crore.

The standing Kali was sold at Saffronart’s 200th auction. The work was once part of the famed collection of theatre director Ebrahim Alkazi.

The soft-spoken and low-profile Mehta, who passed away in 2009, actually set off the bull run in the Indian art market with his trussed up bulls. His works have continued to shine at auctions. Interestingly, he once wanted to be a filmmaker. Mehta actually made a film in 1970, which won the Filmfare Critics Award that year. But cinema’s loss has proved to be art’s gain.