Indian art auction - Indian Art News

Auction in support of Kochi Biennale Foundation

visionsart — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 04:00:03 +0000

Saffronart to host a fundraiser on October 31 featuring works by more than 40 leading modern and contemporary artists

Amrita Sher-Gil, Untitled

Saffronart and the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) will hold a fundraiser auction on October 31 in support of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The KBF is a non-profit charitable trust engaged in promoting art and culture and educational activities in India. Saffronart, founded in 2000 by Minal and Dinesh Vazirani, has hosted almost 100 auctions.
Featuring artworks by more than 40 leading modern and contemporary artists, the net proceeds from the auction will benefit the efforts of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, which showcases leading talent from India and around the world.

Most artworks on offer have no reserve price, and there will be no buyer’s premium on any of the lots.
Among the lots on offer are works by Amrita Sher-Gil, Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Manisha Parekh, Varunika Saraf, Vivan Sundaram, Thukral and Tagra, Atul Dodiya, G R Iranna, B Manjunath Kamath, Parvathi Nayar, Bharat Sikka, Pushpamala N, and international artist Francesco Clemente. Some of the artworks have been donated by the artists themselves, making them patrons of the Biennale. Most artists have been represented at previous editions of the Biennale.
The auction features an exciting mix of photographs, paintings, and sculptures. Among the highlights are two works on paper, dated 1927, by Amrita Sher-Gil.

Sher-Gil was one of India’s most important women artists of the 20th century. Her works are rare to come by, and it is rarer still, for two of her artworks to be offered in the same auction. Also on offer is Ascending (2017), by leading Italian contemporary artist Francesco Clemente.
Clemente, who first visited India in 1973, gained international fame when he participated in the Venice Biennale in 1970. His work has been shown at exhibitions around the world. Other auction highlights include T V Santhosh’s Uploads of a Survivor III (2013), Bharti Kher’s Duck Face (2016), Subodh Gupta’s Untitled (2017) — a stainless steel installation, and a set of two prints by Bharat Sikka (2014/15).
The auction highlights the efforts of Minal and Dinesh Vazirani as supporters of art and culture. As the official auction house associated with the Biennale, this is the second time that Saffronart is partnering with the Kochi Biennale Foundation for a fundraiser auction. The first edition of the auction was held in April 2015, where net proceeds amounted to over Rs2 crores. Nearly 93 per cent of the works sold, contributing to the funds needed to sustain the Biennale.
“As the largest art event in the country, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale has gained immense significance over the past three editions. Its efforts to enhance recognition and appreciation for emerging and established artists require the support of both the government and private institutions. Saffronart is proud to conduct the Kochi Biennale Foundation Fundraiser Auction, and support the Foundation in its fundraising efforts, ” said Dinesh Vazirani, who will conduct the auction at Saffronart Mumbai.
The auction is preceded by viewings in Mumbai. All lots can be viewed on saffronart.com once the catalog is available online. Bidding will take place in the room, online, on the phone, and on Saffronart’s mobile app.
The registration will begin at 7pm while the auction will kick off at 8 pm. Viewings are available from October 27-30, 11am to 7 pm, by appointment only.

For more details, log on to www.saffronart.com

Source http://gulfnews.com/culture/arts/auction-in-support-of-kochi-biennale-foundation-1.2112641

The post Auction in support of Kochi Biennale Foundation first appeared on Indian Art News.

Indian art needs a discerning market

visionsart — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 14:39:00 +0000

What is the new buzz about the art auctions? asked a non-arty friend of mine last evening when he found me thumbing through a couple of auctions catalogues. What about them, I wondered? Considering the whole premise of an auction is that there should be more than one buyer for any work, who in turn are willing to compete to acquire those works and the highest bidder finally bags the work in question. Simplistic? Yes. Over simplistic. And illogical too.

For every gallery owner tells me that the business of art nose-dived during the recession and is yet to pick up. There is little interest in art buying for the moment, and in this scenario holding an auction is to my mind, completely illogical. I mean why go through the angst of collecting the works, getting provenances, printing a catalogue – a huge exercise in itself by any stretch of imagination, holding a physical auction – with all the related nitty-gritty of the event, getting audiences, media et al. I know hope springs eternal in the human heart, but hoping against hope is hardly business sense.As I was waxing eloquent, my non-arty friend continued to look at me in a very perplexed manner. Unable to bear it any more, I halted mid-diatribe and said: What is so mystifying? He retorted: I thought you all were the art types, not concerned about the business of it. You should be glad that at least someone is willing to put in money for art if not in art to let it remain in the news, if nothing else.

He had a point. And a big one at that. Almost within a span of a month, five big auctions of Indian contemporary art have been held in New Delhi, London, Kolkata and Mumbai. Insiders tell me that nothing much sold at these auctions and makes me wonder if it was a mere tax write off. And at the same time, it makes me wonder if people across the cities had the same thought or was there something else at play apart from valiant attempts to give art markets a boost? Like off loading works for instance?

I know I sound like the proverbial broken record when I go on about the need for an educated and discerning art market that comprises art critics, buyers, cognoscenti, media and not merely its creators who must have a sense of historicity and must be able to position Indian art globally. It is just the correct time to do this in a sustained and organised manner when the buying and selling is not so brisk, we should use this time to tom-tom our wares correctly.

But whatever the commercial fate of these auctions, the one thing that I personally am delighted about is the fact that Indian abstract art is finally coming into its own, both nationally and internationally. Gaitonde’s work is being positioned

correctly. Some other works that one may not see anywhere are being dragged out of the closet and shown off!

The other news doing the rounds is the story of Sheetal Mafatlal allegedly replacing originals with photographs on canvas and blaming her friends for the switch. I read the whole story and wondered how on earth can digital photographs printed on canvas replace paintings even for the absolute layperson? Then of course there are others who actually practise this style: Of printing photographs on canvas and then painting on top of it as a matter of personal technique. What I think of it is another matter, but of that another time!

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@ yahoo.com

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London’s ‘India Week’ hosts rare art from global collections

visionsart — Sat, 06 Sep 2014 05:38:00 +0000

New Delhi: A painting by Tyeb Mehta from a Japanese museum collection, a set of rare Kalighat paintings dating pre-Independence and a large stained glass piece by F N Souza are among artworks set for auction in London soon.

Tyeb Mehta’s painting

In a new initiative ‘India Week’, global auctioneers Sotheby’s have brought together many artworks done by Indian modern and contemporary artists which includes quite a few pieces that have never been seen in public for over 50 years. “We are holding three auctions in October of about 100 artworks beginning from 1500 to present time. Many works are coming to the market for the first time. It is a huge cross marketing platform to appeal to art collectors across the world,” Yamini Mehta, international director for Indian and South Asian Art said. The two-day event beginning October 7 with ‘Modern and contemporary South Asian’ auction followed by sale of ‘Arts of Imperial’ and the ‘Arts of Islamic World’ is estimated to raise a total of 10 million pounds. The initiative, says Mehta is also a build up to Frieze, one of world’s largest contemporary art fair that takes place annually in London and sees buyers including Indians, from all over the world visiting. “We are selling some real treasures. It is very eclectic and had something for all tastes and pockets,” says Edward Gibbs, chairman Middle East and India for Sotheby’s. Rare black and white photographs of historic monuments and important personalities in pre independent India that were commissioned for Lord Curzon feature in the ‘Art of Imperial’ sale. ‘Blue Painting’ the oil on canvas painting by Tyeb Mehta in 1982 from the Glenbarra Art Museum in Japan has been estimated to fetch between Rs 5.97 crore to Rs 7.97 crore (600,000 to 800,000 pounds) in the modern and contemporary auction. “The painting had visited India in a show in 1997 and it is now coming back here for the first time after that,” says Priyanka Matthews, head of sales, Sotheby’s who is slated to auctioneering at the India Week. A set of Kalighat paintings from the William and Mildred Archer collection is among those set to go under the hammer. “William was one of the most prolific scholars of Indian art and this set of paintings was discovered by his son in an attic at his home in rural England and we brought them in. It is such a treasure and pleasure to have a group of Kalighat paintings,” says Mehta. Two works on paper by Rabindranath Tagore are from the same collection. Among other highlights of the auction are works by M F Husain. “Some of his wooden toys are being brought from a French diplomat in Monaco,” says Mehta. An early work ‘Prophet’ by Akbar Padamsee has been sourced from an art collector in Brazil. From a Swiss collector comes a Krishen Khanna work. “A large Benaras paper work by Ram Kumar, a beautiful early work by Satish Gujaral and one of the largest F N Souza depicting Goan landscape are some of the other works,” says Mehta.
Early works by Jamini Roy, Mrilalini Mukherjee and Rameshwar Broota also figure in the sale that sees works by artists from India and Pakistan like Rashid Rana, Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta. Previews of select artworks are set to be held here and in New York and London prior to the sale, according to the auctioneers.

Credits : Jagran Post Editorial

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