Modern masters shine at AstaGuru auction, signalling continued strength in Indian art mkt

The results of the last auction of the season of modern Indian art, held by AstaGuru on April 27-28 online bring several reasons to cheer for the Indian art market, which has been on an upward march for quite some time anyway.

The 100th auction by AstaGuru, titled ‘Masters Legacy’, had a rich selection on offer, by the perennial favourites, and their canvases did not disappoint. A big and pleasant surprise, however, was the lot that achieved the highest billing at the auction. Untitled (Hanuman), an oil on canvas by Manjit Bawa, painted circa 1970, went beyond its pre-auction estimate of Rs 6.50 crore – Rs 8.50 crore and fetched Rs 10.25 crore.

Another of Bawa’s works, Untitled (Lion and Goat), too exceeded the estimates, as it sold for Rs 4.71 crore, against an estimate of Rs 2 crore – Rs 3 crore. An oil on canvas painted in 1979, it was one of the top 10 works sold at the Masters Legacy auction. The third Bawa work sold at the auction, an Untitled oil on canvas, fetched Rs 1.13 crore against an estimate of Rs 80 lakh – Rs 1 crore.

Interest in Manjit Bawa’s Work

Though Bawa’s top lot at the recently concluded AstaGuru auction did not set the world record for his work, it has become one of the most expensive paintings of Bawa sold at auctions. The market has always shown keen interest in his art but the current trend of prices of his artworks rising higher and higher at the auctions has been long overdue. Bawa (1941-2008) remains one of India’s most important modernists, who like many of his peers, had an intense engagement with European modernism and then undertook a U-turn to engage with the deep-rooted philosophy of the land of his birth to create distinctive artworks, in a language and vocabulary that is a unique amalgam of modernist and traditional ethos. Bawa’s work of his best phases is instantly recognizable for his stylized figures set in a monochrome background of saturated colours of Indian ethos.

Two of Bawa’s most expensive works were sold at different auctions in 2023. His Untitled (Shiva) had fetched £1,863,000 (approx. Rs 19.4 crore) at a Sotheby’s auction in October las year, while earlier, in March 2023, his Untitled (Durga) had sold for $1,980,000 (approx. Rs 16.5 crore) at a Christie’s auction.

Strong showing by Husain’s canvases

MF Husain — an evergreen favourite of the Indian art market — was another artist two of whose works appeared in the top 10 list of the most expensive works sold at the AstaGuru auction. His 1979 oil on canvas, Equus, was estimated at Rs 4 crore – Rs 6 crore but fetched Rs 8.21 crore. A bright red canvas featuring his trademark horses, it shines with the members of the herd caught in an animated state; a tall man at the left resembles the artist himself, a trope he remained fond of employing in his canvases throughout his life.

Another of his works featuring horses, Untitled (Horses), an oil on canvas, circa 1980, also fetched more than the estimate. It was sold for Rs 6.21 crore against an estimate of Rs 4 crore - Rs 6 crore. It features both of the well-known tropes of Husain’s art - horses and a saree-clad woman, perhaps from a rural background. While one horse reaches out to the woman, the other carries two young riders encased in what seems to be a halo. It’s a beautiful work in red, yellow, cream and brown, and is a hands-down attention-grabbing work in any setting.

While these two works by Husain made it to the top 10 list, there were other canvases by him in the auction, some of which went for more than Rs 1 crore, such as Untitled (The Lost Continent – Series), which fetched Rs 2.33 crore, and another Untitled work that went for Rs 1.65 crore.

Other Works in Top 10

Besides two works by Bawa and Husain each, the top 10 list comprised one work each by J Swaminathan, SH Raza, NS Bendre, FN Souza, Akbar Padamsee and Krishen Khanna.

Swaminathan’s Untitled oil on canvas from 1992, estimated at Rs 4 crore – Rs 6 crore, fetched Rs 7.82 crore, achieving the third highest price at the auction. An abstract work from his ‘tantra’ phase, Swaminathan created this work at the fag end of the neo-Tantra movement of modern Indian art, and it features the geometrical shapes such as triangles and squares associated with the visual expression of the esoteric philosophy of Tantrism.

Triangles, a 1997 acrylic on canvas by SH Raza, was at number 5 in the top 10 list of most expensive works sold at this auction. Estimated at Rs 2.60 crore – Rs 3.60 crore, it fetched Rs 5.91 crore. It’s a fabulous work creating a maze of differently coloured triangles in Raza’s unique vocabulary of abstract art. Raza’s Kallisté, as all art watchers would be well aware of, was sold for $5,619,900 (approx. Rs 46.76 crore) at a Sotheby’s auction on March 18 this year, making it the most expensive work of modern Indian art to be sold at auctions this season (March-April 2024).

A dreamy, sun-drenched landscape of rural India, showing people at work at the farms in a hilly countryside, evoking an India long by, is a captivating Untitled work by NS Bendre, which fetched Rs 4.55 crore against an estimate of Rs 2 crore – Rs 3 crore. An oil on canvas from 1966, this realist landscape in meticulous and arduous pointillist technique - seemingly evoking impressionist landscapes of Europe - clearly shows what made Bendre the master artist that he was. Pieta, a 1963 oil on board by FN Souza - whose centenary is being observed this year - achieved the same price as Bendre’s Untitled work. Two Houses (Deux Maisons), an oil on canvas by Akbar Padamsee, painted in 1963, sold for Rs 4.10 crore, while Krishen Khanna’s Jesus at Emmaus, oil on canvas, circa 2005, fetched Rs 3.67 crore, rounding off the Top 10 list.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based senior journalist, columnist, and a commentator on art, books, market, society, and more. She can be reached at [email protected])