Gaitonde and Souza's work fetch impressive prices

The cover lot for the South Asian Modern and Contemporary art sale courtesy Christie’s, a masterpiece by Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, sold for £625,875 ($974,487). The picture has been requested for next year’s retrospective of the artist at New York’s Guggenheim Museum.

A TOI report stated: “Two untitled paintings by renowned abstract painter Gaitonde fetched nearly £1.2 million (about Rs 10 crore). A never-seen-before painting, 'Ganga Jamuna' by Hussain could not find a buyer. Out of his nineteen paintings put up for auction to celebrate his 100th birth celebrations, only nine were sold, together fetching £8,69,125 (Rs 7.3 crore). Two of Raza's works jointly sold for £5,79,750 (about Rs 5 crore). Three of Souza's works jointly sold for £4,25,625 (about Rs 4 crore).

Reflecting the international scale of this category, the contemporary artists on offer, Rina Banerjee, Subodh Gupta, Jitish Kallat and Ravinder Reddy are increasingly exhibiting throughout the world.  Also included in the sale are outstanding works by leading contemporary female photographers Farida Batool, Chitra Ganesh, Yamini Nayar and Pushpamala and Clare Arni.

A unique collection of 6 works by the great Sri Lankan modern master, George Keyt (1901-1993), sold collectively for £339,850 ($529,146), more than doubling the pre-sale low estimate. His ‘Gopika Vastra Paharana’ (1952), expected to sell for £40,000-60,000, sold for £109,875 ($171,075) to a buyer in the room against 4 rival bids and set a new auction record for a work by the artist sold at auction. The highlight of the Arts of India sale on June 10 was an illustration for the Bhagavata Purana showing the Snake Demon Ugrasura Swallowing Krishna, which sold for £181,875 ($283,179) against a pre-sale estimate of £30,000-50,000.

The summer sale of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art, took place on 11 June in London. It presented a rich collection of modernist and contemporary works spanning the region. Highlighting the sale, as mentioned above was a masterpiece by Vasudeo S. Gaitonde. Included in the sale was a special feature of rare and important works in honor of Maqbool Fida Husain to commemorate the centenary year of his birth apart from paintings and sculptures by Meera Mukherjee, Jehangir Sabavala, Francis Newton Souza, Syed Haider Raza.