Record Price For Hussain Painting ‘A Watershed Moment’

We were always of the view that despite the rising soft power of India in general in the last decade, Indian art will specifically become more relevant for large global family offices once individual works of art cross the $5 million mark - Rishiraj Sethi, Director, Aura Art Development, tells Bizz Buzz

Mumbai: A Husain masterpiece lends its healing touch to a doctor born in Ukraine and a hospital in Oslo, besides the medical professionals and patients who were fortunate enough to witness this masterpiece for the last six decades. This gigantic painting of a country cart traversing the streets of Mumbai travels from Delhi to Europe to be lapped up in a Christie’s auction on Thursday in New York for a record price of $13.75 million (Rs118.62 crore). Born and raised under adverse conditions in rural Ukraine, young Leon Elias ‘Volo’ Volodarsky (1894–1962), graduates as a medical doctor in University in Kristiania (Oslo) in 1926, flees during World War II because of his Jewish descent, joins the allied forces in England, returns to Norway after the war and finally settles as a surgeon at the Oslo medical emergency unit. Dr Volodarsky was a committed art collector and acquired this Husain work in New Delhi, 1954, while heading a World Health Organization (WHO) team posted there to establish a thoracic surgery training centre, which was subsequently bequeathed by his estate to Oslo University Hospital, 1964.

Untitled (Gram Yatra) (Volodarsky Husain) serves as the ultimate visual almanac of Husain’s most iconic images from this period. Comprising thirteen unique panels that occupy almost fourteen feet across a single canvas, Gram Yatra, which means ‘village pilgrimage,’ is not only one of the largest, but perhaps the most significant painting by the artist from the 1950s. This monumental painting is Husain’s magnum opus, a cornerstone of his oeuvre celebrating the diversity and dynamism of a newly independent nation. As such, Gram Yatra is an exemplar of nation-building through art.

Husain moved to Bombay in 1937, painting billboards for feature films and designing furniture and toys for children. In 1947, he joined the newly formed Progressive Artists’ Group, founded on the eve of India’s Independence. In the decade following independence, Husain’s work increasingly focused on subjects that combined rural life with mythology and symbolism, drawing inspiration from the historical visual culture of India.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, Rishiraj Sethi, Director, Aura Art Development, who provides various Art Infrastructure Solutions to the Indian Art Market, including Valuation of Art says, “this is a watershed moment for Indian art - to cross the Rs100 crore mark ($13.75 mn) with such gusto, shows that this new bull run in Indian art, which started around 3 years ago has a lot of momentum still - given that the last high was achieved by an Amrita Sher-Gill selling for Rs62.80 crore ($7.5 mn) in September 2023”.

We were always of the view that despite the rising soft power of India in general in the last decade, Indian art will specifically become more relevant for large global family offices once individual works of art cross the $5 million mark - given the size of these collections and the scale of their allocation to a new country – and once these allocations start, the confounding pace of the new highs will outwit Indian collectors, he added.

Professor Prashant Das, Chairperson- Finance & Accounting Area, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, who developed the IIMA-Aura Art Indian Art Index (IAIAI), says, “The timing of the Art Index for Indian Art could not have been better. The Indian Art Market, which was in a side-ways consolidation for the most part of 2009-2021, literally took off after the launch of IAIAI towards the end of 2022, to hit new highs in 2023-2024, breaking upwards from the last peak achieved in 2006.”

Even then, I am quite amazed at the scale at which the earlier high has been breached, given that Rs118.62 crore is nearly double the previous high of Rs62.8 crore and that too within just 18 months, he added.