S panning South Asia across the late-nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the collection of works in this sale is testament to the diverse and extraordinary corpus of art from this region. The sale is led by a 1972 masterwork by VS Gaitonde. Over 70 other artists are represented, including some of the biggest names in the field, such as Jehangir Sabavala, Manjit Bawa, Francis Newton Souza and Bhupen Khakhar, along with lesser-known artists who are yet to receive their due recognition.
Renowned artist, poet, critic and writer, Gulammohammed Sheikh, first met Bhupen Khakhar in 1958. Sheikh was an important early influence for Khakhar, encouraging the young painter to join the Faculty of Fine Arts in Baroda. The artists were both key members of the Baroda School of Art and friends for over forty years. Here, Sheikh reflects on a masterwork from Bhupen Khakhar’s now-canonical ‘Trade’ series – Sheikh Shoe Mart (1977).
This sale offers two remarkable works by acclaimed modern sculptor, Amar Nath Sehgal. The first, titled Lovers, is an important early work from 1957, exhibited in seminal solo shows across Europe in the mid-1960s. The second – Nari (1986) – shows the sinuous, abstracted contours of a female figure – Sehgal’s powerful “homage to woman”.
This 1977 masterpiece by Jehangir Sabavala embodies the culmination of the artist’s quest to portray the quiet, ethereal landscapes of the mind. Suffused with gossamer luminosity, this painting dates to what is widely considered Sabavala’s greatest period of artistic production.
Jehangir Sabavala
Untitled
Estimate: 600,000 – 800,000 USD
Meera Menezes, acclaimed author of V.S. Gaitonde: Sonata of Solitude (2016), writes on the leading lot of this auction, Gaitonde’s Painting 4 from 1972. Reflecting on the artist’s non-representational mode of painting and his lifelong preoccupation with Zen aesthetics, Menezes locates this 1972 canvas within Gaitonde’s extraordinary body of work.
Vasudeo S. Gaitonde
Painting 4
Estimate: 1,500,000 – 2,000,000 USD
Suhas Bahulkar and Deepak Ghare are the editors of the first-ever encyclopedia on Maharashtra’s visual art history between 1765 and 1960. Here, Bahulkar surveys the artistic voyage of the Bombay School of Art from Academic realism, Bombay Revivalism, to Stylization and Abstraction, through twenty-one remarkable artworks offered within this auction.
In this sale, we are privileged to offer two exceptional sculptures by celebrated artist, Meera Mukherjee – Santur Player and Untitled (Mango Orchard). Art historian, writer and archivist, Arkaprava Bose, reflects on the elegant and narrative sculptural practice of Mukherjee and the key themes the current lots convey.
