Focus again on established and emerging masters at Sept sales

We are back in the month of September when some of the most important sales of Indian art are held annually, in India as well as in New York and London. In the coming few weeks, stretching into October, three important auctions of Indian art are going to be conducted, beginning with the Saffronart Live Evening Sale on 17 September in New Delhi, Christie's South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction on 21 September in New York, and Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary South Asian Auction on 25 October in London.

Highlights of September Sales

As expected, all the three upcoming sales will be watched closely by market analysts for potential records, and most importantly, for the way the market will shape in the months thereafter.

In that aspect, the top art works at the two September sales - of Saffronart and Christie's - are worth a discussion.

First off the block is the Saffronart sale that will be held in New Delhi on 17 September. The top works with the highest pre-auction estimates are:

1. 'Broken Head' by FN Souza from 1957, estimate: Rs 8 crore - Rs 12 crore ($1,025,645 – $1,538,465)

2. 'Jaipur' by SH Raza, 1976, estimate: Rs 6 crore – Rs 8 crore ($769,235 – $1,025,645)

3. 'Untitled' by NS Bendre, 1983, estimate: Rs 5 crore – Rs 7 crore ($641,030 – $897,440)

4. 'Untitled' by MV Dhurandhar, 1934, estimate: Rs 3 crore – Rs 5 crore ($384,620 – $641,030)

5. 'Of Cloud and Air II' by Jehangir Sabavala, 1977; 'Airavat' by MF Husain; and 'Untitled' by J Swaminathan, 1993, estimate of each: Rs 3.5 crore – Rs 4.5 crore ($448,720 – $576,925)

At the Christie's sale, which will be held in four days of the above auction, in New York, the top names are almost a repeat:

1. 'Untitled' by VS Gaitonde, 1963, estimate: $1,200,000 – $1,800,000 (approx. Rs 9.5 crore – Rs 14.31 crore)

2. 'Untitled (Citadel with Flag)' by FN Souza, 1964, estimate: $450,000 – $600,000 (approx. Rs 3.5 crore – Rs 4.7 crore)

3. 'Head of King' by FN Souza, 1961, estimate: $200,000 – $300,000 (approx. Rs 1.5 crore – Rs 2.3 crore)

4. 'Untitled (Girl)' by Ram Kumar, late 1950s, estimate: $220,000 –$280,000 (approx. Rs 1.7 crore – Rs 2.2 crore)

5. 'Untitled (Bird, Tree and Mountain Series)' by Jagdish Swaminathan, 1971, and 'Untitled (Devdas)' by MF Husain, 2002, estimate: $180,000 – $250,000 (approx. Rs 1.4 crore - Rs 1.9 crore)

The highlights of the two sales reiterate a point that has for long remained the corner stone of the Indian art market - that it is dominated by the modern masters who came into their own in the early years of India's Independence, forging a new identity for Indian art, which was Indian and modern at the same time, yet eschewed effete traditionalism of the former and blind adoption of western principles that guided the latter.

VS Gaitonde (1924-2001), FN Souza (1924-2002), SH Raza (1922-2016), MF Husain (1913-2011) and Ram Kumar (1924-2018) in the above two lists are names that have taken the lion's share of Indian art sales for long enough to become well-known even to those who don't follow the art world. Their presence here, therefore, is not a surprise.

What is a welcome addition to the lists, however, is the presence of the names of Jagdish Swaminathan and NS Bendre, the two stalwarts who should have been at the top of the pyramid like their other well-known peers long ago, but are now slowly beginning to get their due in the market, even though belatedly. In fact, the past few sales have been very good for the newer masters such as Swaminathan and Bendre, whose works have seen interesting rallies, pushing their prices to unprecedented highs.

The Bulging Tip of the Pyramid

For the past few auctions, the handful few names at the very top of the pyramid of modern Indian art have been joined by rightly deserving newer names such as Jagdish Swaminathan, NS Bendre, MV Dhurandhar, Bhupen Khakhar, Jogen Chowdhury and Ganesh Pyne.

At both the upcoming auctions, NS Bendre (1910-1992) has multiple representations, which just goes on to show that the market is at the cusp of truly celebrating this master, who was not just a gifted artist himself but trained generations of artists while teaching at MS University, Baroda, for nearly two decades (1950-66).

Art watchers may recall that at Astaguru's Modern Indian Art auction on 27-28 December 2021, an 'Untitled' oil on canvas by Bendre had fetched Rs 6 crore against an estimate of Rs 1.5 crore – Rs 2 crore. A little earlier, at a Pundole's auction in Mumbai on 18 November 2021, four of Bendre's works had sold for upwards of a crore. These included 'Jaisalmer Fort', which went for Rs 5 crore, 'Kashmir Landscape' for Rs 3.8 crore, 'A Bundi House' for Rs 3.5 crore and 'Tarnetar Fair' for Rs 3.2 crore.

A newly developing taste for Bendre's work is also indicative of the maturity of Indian art market, which is now ready to put its weight behind superlative works by masters other than the tried-and-tested signatures. This creates the possibility of opening the door for other artists whose works are as significant as those of the top seven whose works have remained the most in demand since the cusp of the 20th-21st centuries, when Indian art market suddenly started expanding. These seven names, as we all know very well by now, are Gaitonde, Souza, Raza, Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Ram Kumar and Rameshwar Broota.

It will be a while before the current records of the most expensive Indian paintings achieved for Tyeb Mehta's 'Untitled (Bull on Rickshaw) at Rs 41.97 crore ($5.5 million) and V. S. Gaitonde's 'Untitled' at Rs 42 crore in April and February this year respectively, will be surpassed but the upcoming auctions will be interesting to watch for the newer price levels they are going to set for the established and newly minted market favourites of Indian modern art.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist, editor and arts consultant. She blogs at www.archanakhareghose.com)