India’s most expensive woman artist in the making?

A monumental mural apparently inspired by the bewildering Buddhist monastic traditions is estimated to fetch a whopping Rs 10 crore by Delhi-based artist Arpita Singh at an upcoming auction. The estimated price is expected to turn her into India’s most expensive woman artist. ‘The Wish Dream’ is a 16 panel mural (24 ft x 13 ft) done by her in 2001. It’s set to go under the hammer in the Saffronart modern and contemporary winter auction on December 8.

The renowned contemporary Indian artist, Bharti Kher, previously set a new auction record in June with her fibreglass and bindi elephant sculpture. It grossed Rs 6.94 crore at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction, London.

The Saffronart auction will feature a top selection of 100 works by over 40 leading Indian artists. Highlights of the event include modern masters like SH Raza, Ram Kumar, Akbar Padamsee and FN Souza alongside some several major names in contemporary Indian art such as Surendran Nair, Shibu Natesan, NS Harsha and Subodh Gupta.

Explaining the valuation and importance of the Arpita Singh mural, the Saffronart co-founder and CEO, Dinesh Vazirani has stated, “It’s the rarity of the art work, which determines its market value. And this is clearly one of the most significant and largest works done by any Indian woman artist at any auction ever. It’s not something any artist will create again in their lifetime. It’s a vertical work, which goes from bottom to top. It shows everything the central woman figure experiences, and portrays the evocative power of the feminine form.”

Originally commissioned by late Nandita Jain, it portrays the experience of the central woman character through usage of vivid colors and familiar motifs. The 73-year-old artist is hardly affected by the new-found commercial success, with her works doing well at recent auction events. In fact, she is busy preparing for her upcoming solo at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. She simply stated, “I don’t have any reaction. The work is no more with me, so I am not really concerned (about its price).”

At Sotheby’s South Asian art auction (New York, September), her ‘Munna Apa’s Garden’ grossed over four times its estimated value ($100,000-$150,000). It now remains to be seen whether the monumental work manages to scale the estimated price and set a new record.