Regulars & newcomers in top billed works at Sotheby's auction

On October 25, the season's last big auction of Indian art will be held in London by Sotheby's. Titled 'Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art', this auction is an important fixture of the annual September sales that are highly anticipated by the community of serious art collectors. Even though the pre-auction estimates are not stupendous if compared to the current benchmark of top-selling Indian artworks, some of the very top artworks are on offer at prices that are by no means modest.

Highlights of Sotheby's Sale

When the market is steady and not being adventurous, as the past few auctions of Indian art in the big umbrella of September sales have proved, it's easy to guess a list of top artworks. No surprises then that the top billed work at the upcoming auction by Sotheby's is an abstract by one of India's most revered - and highest selling - artists, VS Gaitonde (1924-2001).

Gaitonde's abstract work in intense blue, red, black and grey, titled 'Painting III', is an oil on canvas from early career of the artist. Painted in 1959, this top lot is estimated at £700,000-£900,000 (approx. Rs 6.3 crore-Rs 8.1 crore). Gaitonde, as all art watchers know, has been the top selling artist for several years now, which has ensured that the prices of his artworks have steadily risen. He has been the most expensive artist in the Indian art scene for quite some time, and also currently holds the record for the most expensive Indian artwork ever sold. His 'Untitled' oil on canvas from 1969, a rather tepid blue compared to the one he used in the work coming up at Sotheby's, sold for Rs 42 crore at a Pundole's auction on 24 February this year. The reclusive artist is one of the most well-known of Indian abstractionists who essayed the genre with depth and gravitas like none other.

The next expensive lot on offer is 'Visitors' by Bhupen Khakhar (1934-2003), which is an oil on canvas from 1998. A late career work by the artist, it is estimated at £400,000-£500,000 (approx. Rs 3.6 crore-Rs 4.5 crore). It is a bold work by the artist, who was the first Indian artist to declare himself gay, bold for then as it is now. According to the catalogue note by the auction house, 'Bhupen is found in tender embrace with his final partner, Vallabhbhai, and joined by a throng of shadowy spectres. In the same year, he showed the painting to two close friends one evening, the filmmaker Kumar Sahani and fellow Baroda-based artist Purshottam D Dhumal, who went on to acquire the painting for his personal collection.' It would be interesting to watch how this work fares as the value of Khakhar's works has been going north for the past two years, with some of his works breaking records earlier this year. In October last year at the Sotheby's auction, his work 'Krishna Hotel' fetched Rs 12.30 crore (£1,225,000), becoming his most expensive work ever.

The works at positions number three and four are by names that are familiar in the top 10 circuit. At number three is 'Naked Play Two' by Maqbool Fida Husain (1913-2011), estimated at £220,000-£280,000 (approx. Rs 2 crore-Rs 2.5 crore). In signature Husain strokes, it depicts three women, talking casually in a carefree atmosphere as their clothes are not in order, which is a possibility when one is personal company. At number four is another well-known abstractionist signature, that of Ram Kumar (1924-2018). Titled 'Enclosure', it's a work in a soft palette of white and grey-biege, with jagged and rather rushed lines that seem to indicate enclosures that man creates on earth. The most distinctive feature of this work is that even though it speaks of man's activity, it does not show any human figure, a characteristic so typical of Ram Kumar. This work is estimated at £150,000-£200,000 (approx. Rs 1.3 crore-Rs 1.8 crore)

New Names to Watch Out For

While it's always interesting to make note of the figures of estimates that the auction houses generate for the artworks by top artists on sale, the Sotheby's list has fresh names in the top bracket. These are names that have long deserved recognition at the market (over and above the recognition that they already enjoy by connoisseurs and academics) and some of them have begun to feature frequently in the A-list for the past few auctions.

At the Sotheby's auction, new names to take note of in the top 10 list include: Prabhakar Barwe at number 5, Ganesh Pyne at number 6 and B Prabha at number 10.

'Questioning Plant' by Barwe (1936-1995) is a seminal work by the artist who explored abstraction through the philosophy of 'tantra' for a major part of his career, and gradually moved on to explore surrealism through works that mark an important phase in the evolution of modern Indian art. Featuring the creation of life through the germination of a seed, this work, very simply, brings focus on the eternal question of 'what is life' that has bogged mankind since centuries. It is estimated at £150,000-£250,000 (approx. Rs 1.3 crore-Rs 2.2 crore).

At number 6 is 'Untitled' by Ganesh Pyne (1937-2013), a tempera on mountboard work from 1981, featuring a monarch in signature Pyne strokes, in a pose that is so reminiscent of Mughal emperors. Yet, there is nothing magnificent about the figure as death and decay loom large through the choice of colours and the expression on the face, a leitmotif that stayed with Pyne throughout his career. It is estimated at £150,000-£200,000 (approx. Rs 1.3 crore-Rs 1.8 crore).

B Prabha (1933-2001) appears on number 10 in the list with her site-specific work, 'Untitled (Wedding Musicians)'. The odd shape of the work from 1965 is because it was painted for a particular wall of an office of Air India, the corporate house that pioneered corporate collection of art in the country becoming one of the most important art collections and corporate collections to date. It's a lively, colourful montage of a series of musicians, chiefly women, playing their instruments, their bright dresses reflective of the mood of the wedding for which they are playing. It is estimated £100,000-£150,000 (approx. Rs 90 lakz-Rs 1.3 crore).

For all these three names - Prabhakar Barwe, Ganesh Pyne and B Prabha - these are important times at auctions because the market is showing maturity enough to move beyond the Progressives and show interest in works of art that are equally superlative but have not yet found their place in the sun. Hopefully, the trend will continue in the future auctions as well.

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