In terms of its pre-auction estimate of £800,000 – £1,200,000 (approx. $1,158,400 - $1,737,600 or Rs 7.71 crore - Rs 11.57 crore), this untitled oil on canvas by V.S. Gaitonde (1924-2001) from 1958 is quite like the one he painted in 1995, which somersaulted way above its similar estimated price to become the highest Indian painting/ work of art ever sold at an auction at the December India sale by Christie’s in 2015; it had gone for a speechless $4,415,008 (£3,050,454 or Rs 29.30 crore). That’s why, the untitled 1958 Gaitonde oil on canvas, coming up for sale at Christie’s South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction in London on May 26, will be a keenly-watched, and hopefully, a keenly-contested canvas, and one may never know, even a record-setting canvas. The canvas comes for the venerable collection of New Delhi-based Savara Family, which is one of the most outstanding collections of Pre-Modern and Modern Indian art. Part of the proceeds from the sale of this canvas will go the Savara Foundation for the Arts. What makes this work seminal is the fact it is one of the largest examples of Gaitonde’s transition to non-objective painting. It was originally in the collection of T. Borden, an American Merchant Marine who was introduced to Gaitonde’s paintings through Kumar Gallery, Kolkata and went on to acquire several of his works from the late 1950s to early 1960s. He was Gaitonde’s first American patron.It leads the summer auction of 72 lots by Christie’s, featuring superlative works by top notch names of Indian art, featuring largely modern masters; the notable contemporary names missing from the list include Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Jitish Kallat and the other regulars who have otherwise been regular features of auctions. The next most expensive lot on offer is another untitled Gaitonde, painted in 1975. It is estimated at £400,000 – £600,000 ($579,200 - $868,800 or Rs 3.85 crore - Rs 5.78 crore). What makes this painting special is that it hails from the family collection of veteran artist Ram Kumar, a lifelong friend of Gaitonde and also his neighbour in a South Delhi neighborhood when the master shifted from Mumbai to the country’s capital. Ram Kumar, who often took car of his friend like family, had bought this painting from an exhibition in Delhi in mid-1970s. The exhibition catalogue states that Kumar had bought this painting after his first choice was requested by Tom Keehn, their friend and the American representative of the Rockefeller Fund in India. The story of the efforts of Gaitonde’s friends to make him financially stable after he suffered a serious accident in 1980s is a touching narrative which the master’s canvases from that period embody. The third most expensive canvas is an oil on canvas by Jehangir Sabavala (1922-2011), titled “The Bridge.” Painted in 2004 by the handsome artist from Mumbai, it is estimated at £200,000 – £300,000 ($289,600 - $434,400 or Rs 1.92 crore - Rs 2.89 crore). It is one of Sabavala’s most arresting landscape paintings, featuring a striking rocky island surrounded by a full, large river flowing between lush mountains. It is said that paintins such as these were inspired by the Western Deccan landscapes which Sabavala encountered during his travels.An interesting signature in the auction is that of Austrian artist Walter Langhammer (1905-1977), whose oil on board work, “The Rest,” is on sale for £5,000 – £7,000 ($7,240 - $10,136 or Rs 4.82 lakh - Rs 6.74 lakh). Langhammer went to India before the Second World War, fleeing the Nazis in Austria. With the help of an Indian student who had studied with him, Shirin Vimadalal, Langhammer managed to get appointed first art director of The Times of India newspaper in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1936. He soon became a rallying point for the new artists of the time, who would go on to form the Progressive Artists Group and become the most sought after names of Indian art. Much against his wish, Langhammer had to return to Europe due to his failing health, in early 1960s.Of special interest will be art works by Nasreen Mohamedi, the subject of a comprehensive survey at the Met Breuer in New York, Himmat Shah, whose retrospective is currently being hosted by New Delhi’s Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Syed Haider Raza, M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar, Gulam Rasool Santosh, and the late Pakistani master Abdur Rahman Chughtai (1894-1975) among others. Follow@ARTINFOIndia
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