Newer stars nudge the masters for space at the top

Besides Khakhar, some masters who have gradually nudged their way to the rarefied top layers of the Indian art market as per the results of some seminal auctions in the past year, are Manjit Bawa, Arpita Singh, K.K. Hebbar, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, NS Bendre and Zarina Hashmi amongst others. At the latest Christie's auction mentioned above, it was a Bhupen Khakhar (1934-2003) work that came on top, even setting the personal record for the artist by becoming his most expensive work ever sold. His 1994 oil on canvas, The Banyan Tree, sold for $2,460,000 or approx. Rs 18.54 crore, way above the price of his last most expensive work, Krishna Hotel that had fetched £1,225,000 or Rs 12.30 crore at a Sotheby's auction in London last October

While the market has now accepted the presence of Bhupen Khakhar's works at the very top of the desired canvases of Indian art, the big surprise - and a welcome one at that - was the whopping figure achieved by a work by Gulammohammed Sheikh. A large oil diptych by the 85-year-old Baroda-based artist, titled How Can You Sleep Tonight? painted in 1994-95, was estimated at $250,000 – $350,000 (approx. Rs 1.88 crore – Rs 2.63 crore) at the Christie's auction. But it was eventually sold for a stunning $2,040,000 or Rs 15.37 crore. That not only made it the most expensive work sold by this seminal artist of India's modern art movement, but also became the fourth most valued work at this particular auction, behind works by Khakhar, Gaitonde and Souza, in that order

The second fortnight of March was momentous for Indian art. The Sotheby's auction of Modern and Contemporary South Asian art on March 21 in New York firmly brought the spotlight on two unsung master sculptors - Amar Nath Sehgal and Meera Mukherjee, about which this column discussed in detail on March 24. While that column was being written, the Christie's auction of Indian art in New York on March 23, featuring the Mahinder and Sharad Tak collection, reiterated the current trend for the field - the market is gravitating towards maturity as newer names, riding on quality works, are increasingly finding buyers alongside the established masters. These newer names are long neglected masters who deserved a big applause much earlier. Among them, Bhupen Khakhar is one name that has constantly risen the graph in the past nearly two years, about whom we too have discussed in detail in earlier write-ups.

The New Bankable Stars

While big ticket names such as VS Gaitonde, SH Raza, MF Husain, FN Souza, Tyeb Mehta, Jehangir Sabavala, and Ram Kumar to name some, almost always manage to find top prices for their works - often setting records too in their wake - auctions are increasingly bringing spotlight on masters for whom credit has been long overdue. Besides Khakhar, some masters who have gradually nudged their way to the rarefied top layers of the Indian art market as per the results of some seminal auctions in the past year, are Manjit Bawa, Arpita Singh, K.K. Hebbar, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, NS Bendre and Zarina Hashmi amongst others.

At the latest Christie's auction mentioned above, it was a Bhupen Khakhar (1934-2003) work that came on top, even setting the personal record for the artist by becoming his most expensive work ever sold. His 1994 oil on canvas, The Banyan Tree, sold for $2,460,000 or approx. Rs 18.54 crore, way above the price of his last most expensive work, Krishna Hotel that had fetched £1,225,000 or Rs 12.30 crore at a Sotheby's auction in London last October.

Second Generation Modernists

While the market has now accepted the presence of Bhupen Khakhar's works at the very top of the desired canvases of Indian art, the big surprise - and a welcome one at that - was the whopping figure achieved by a work by Gulammohammed Sheikh.

A large oil diptych by the 85-year-old Baroda-based artist, titled How Can You Sleep Tonight? painted in 1994-95, was estimated at $250,000 – $350,000 (approx. Rs 1.88 crore – Rs 2.63 crore) at the Christie's auction. But it was eventually sold for a stunning $2,040,000 or Rs 15.37 crore. That not only made it the most expensive work sold by this seminal artist of India's modern art movement, but also became the fourth most valued work at this particular auction, behind works by Khakhar, Gaitonde and Souza, in that order.

Other Indian artists whose works breached the tight zone peopled by just a handful of eternal market favourites, to come out tops and fetch prices beyond the high pre-auction estimates, included: Manjit Bawa (1941-2008), Arpita Singh (b. 1937), J Swaminathan (1928-1994) and Jogen Chowdhury (b. 1939).

While all these four have been part of the uber group of modern and contemporary Indian artists, winning global acclaim, but their works have generally skirted the bracket of record-breaking prices. At Christie's auction, however, the prices of their artworks went way beyond the pre-auction estimates. The four, along with Gulammohammed Sheikh, belong to the second generation of Indian modernists born a little later than the Progressives, the pioneering modernists who own the idiom of modernism in Indian like nobody else, and by extension, command the lion's share of the art market.

Expanding Peak of the Market

With the market now putting faith in quality works by artists other than the top five or six who have commanded the auction circuit for two decades now, the peak is getting broader to accommodate more names. It's a healthy sign for the market that is showing great maturity in backing works with deep artistic and historical significance in the journey of Indian modernism. All the artists mentioned above — Sheikh, Swaminathan, Bawa, Chowdhury and Singh —along with others of this generation who are gradually ascending the graph, such as Shanti Dave, Zarina Hashmi and Bikash Bhattacharjee, have made landmark contributions to the evolution of Indian modern art and it was only a matter of time before their work was acknowledged for its market worth at the very top.

Works from the significant periods of the careers of some of these second-generation modernists are on offer at the upcoming Saffronart Spring Live Auction in Mumbai on 6 April and it would be worthwhile to watch how they fare in a resurgent market.

For instance, Twenty-seven Ducks of Memory, an oil on canvas by Arpita Singh is one of the top works on offer at the Saffronart auction. It is estimated at Rs 1.5 crore – Rs 2 crore ($200,000 – $266,670). Those who don't know her yet could memorise the fact that Singh's canvas holds the record for being the most expensive work by an Indian woman artist. At the Christie's auction, her 1994 oil on canvas, Woman Plucking Flowers, sold way above its high estimate, for $819,000 or Rs 6.18 crore.

The New Delhi-based artist is known for her richly detailed oils and watercolours, which are a throwback to her childhood; the central figure in her works, however, has often remained the woman or the pre-occupations of common women.

Seminal works by Ganesh Pyne, Manjit Bawa and NS Bendre should light up the proceedings at the last of the big spring auctions of Indian art this season, to add richness and variety to the few names of record breakers at the top.

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