Syed Haider Raza - Indian Art News

A Celebration of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art at Christie’s in September

visionsart — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:24:00 +0000

Jitish Kallat, Dawn Chorus- 7, 2007. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2009. Jitish Kallat, Dawn Chorus- 7, 2007. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2009.

Source – Artdaily.org

New York

Christies South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art sale will feature over 100 works from the leading 20th and 21st century artists from South Asia, including artists from India and Pakistan. The sale will focus on prime examples of many different movements and styles and highlights will include works from modern masters Tyeb Mehta, Francis Newton Souza, Syed Haider Raza and Ram Kumar as well as works from leading contemporary artists Rashid Rana, Jitish Kallat, Thukral & Tagra among others. Christie’s pays tribute to Tyeb Mehta (1925-2009), who recently passed away, and with whom Christie’s shared a great friendship as well as many successes. The September sale celebrates his genius by presenting works from different periods of his oeuvre. The cover lot of the sale is Two Figures, a signature work from 1994 estimated at $600,000 to $800,000. The painting bears a strong relation to the themes from Mehta’s Celebration, which sold at Christie’s New York in September 2002. The theme draws inspiration from the Charak festival, the Spring Festival of the Santhals, celebrated in Eastern India. Another notable highlight is Mehta’s Mahishasura (estimate: $600,000-800,000), which refers to the traditional Hindu tale of the Warrior Goddess Durga slaying the Buffalo Demon, Mahisha. Another version from this series realized $1,584,000 in September 2005 at Christie’s New York and established a world auction record for a Contemporary Indian painting. It was the first work in the category to break the million dollar mark. Ram Kumar apprenticed with Fernand Léger in Paris during the 1950s and was inspired by Modigliani, which is evidenced in one of his last figurative works Untitled, 1960 (estimate: $70,000-90,000). Ram Kumar was then to abandon figuration after a pivotal journey to Benares, a city by the banks of the Ganges, which is reflected in Untitled (Benares), 1963 (estimate: $60,000-80,000). The work is painted with an architectural formalism that in reality would be chaotically teeming with bathers and pilgrims. Benares as the Eternal City has since pre-occupied the artist for over four decades and he described his first visit to the city as having “…left an everlasting impression on my artistic sensibility.” The auction further includes an excellent selection of Modernist works led by Syed Haider Raza, Francis Newton Souza, and Vasudeo S. Gaitonde. Raza’s Le Maquis, 1965, (estimate: $300,000-500,000) meaning scrub or bush, is an important work from Raza’s abstract expressionist period. Painted in shades of yellow and green, the work represents his childhood memories of his home in the deep, warm forest of Kakaiya, India. Souza’s Nude with Mirror, 1963, (estimate: $300,000-500,000) is a unique work from the early 1960s in which he dehumanizes the female nude with a violent expression similar to the faces painted by Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon. Gaitonde’s Untitled (estimate: $150,000-200,000) displays the artist’s purist style via a shimmering, uncluttered composition. Rashid Rana is one of the best known multi-media Pakistani contemporary artists and his Red Carpet- 2 (estimate: $120,000-180,000) is paradoxically an object of gruesome beauty. The work imitates the pixilated architecture of an actual carpet, which is created from hundreds of composite images of goats being slaughtered, arranged to form a stunning impression of the traditional carpets of the region. Amongst a fine group of Modern and Contemporary Pakistani works featured are Sunrise (estimate: $40,000-60,000), a 1968 canvas by Sadequain (1930-1987), who was one of Pakistan’s best known and most prolific painters and Untitled (estimate: $60,000-80,000) by Jamil Naqsh (b.1939), which depicts his long-time companion and fellow painter Najmi Sura holding a bird. Jitish Kallat has emerged as one of India’s leading artistic voices and Dawn Chorus- 7, 2007 (estimate: $80,000-100,000) is his most celebrated series. In this work, Kallat found inspiration from young boys peddling goods to commuters in the crowded Bombay streets. He replaced the boys’ hair with towering, tightly packed cityscapes celebrating their resilience and entrepreneurship. Elsewhere in the sale other contemporary works include Anju Dodiya’s Opus, 2007 (estimate: $80,000-100,000), Bhupen Khakhar’s Shahrukh with Southern Stars (Two sided cut-out figure), 2000 (estimate: $40,000-60,000), and Thukral & Tagra’s Phone Now +91 114174 0215, 2006 (estimate: $25,000-35,000).

The auction takes placeon 16th September

The post A Celebration of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art at Christie’s in September first appeared on Indian Art News.

Is Bacon in more demand than Picasso?

visionsart — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:45:00 +0000

AS Sotheby’s and Christie’s gear up for their famously extravagant summer contemporary art sales, the mood is mixed.
Last October’s evening sales at Christie’s saw earnings of £34.87m for the auction house and the art world was paddling about in a Frieze-Week sea of champagne; last June the credit crunch was a distant rumour and the sales at Sotheby’s made £72.43m.
Now, despite the credit crunch, experts at the two auction houses maintain that the market is stronger than ever — indeed, the February 2008 Contemporary Evening sale made Sotheby’s a whopping £95m. The sales are strongly blue-chip (roughly 90 per cent), with work by Britons Gilbert & George, Tracey Emin and Anthony Gormley, and Americans Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol, among others.
Both houses have got their hands on paintings by Francis Bacon, the most sought-after artist on the market at the moment. Christie’s has Three Studies For A Self-Portrait, the first time the work has been seen at auction. Sotheby’s has been trumpeting its Study For Head Of George Dyer for weeks — so hot is this haunting, enigmatic portrait set against a solid green background, that the catalogue says the price estimate is only available on request. Figure Turning from 1962 should go for between £10m and £15m at Sotheby’s.
Of the Baconian frenzy, Oliver Barker, head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s, says: “In many people’s minds, Bacon is now surpassing Picasso. A Bacon is a very strong blue chip.”
Other dynamite lots are Jeff Koons’s Balloon Flower (Magenta), at Christie’s, an enormous sculpture based on a balloon twisted into the shape of a purple-pink wide open bloom which has been on view in St James’s Square.It’s estimated to go for in the region of £12m.
At Sotheby’s is Richard Prince’s Overseas Nurse, from his sexy, grimy Nurses series (estimated at £4m to 6m And Chant 2, the first pure colour painting by British artist Bridget Riley to come to market, is estimated at £2m to £3m.
German post-war artists are well represented. Frank Auerbach, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and sculptor Bruce Nauman are all for sale at high prices — estimates for Richter go up to £3m at Christie’s for his sombre, abstract Kleine Strasse. But despite the dizzying figures, it’s worth remembering that, as yet, nobody has paid them.
The positive spin churned out by the big houses at sales time should be taken with a very large pinch of salt; for example, results from the recent Russian sales were mixed at best, despite glowing tributes from Sotheby’s and Christie’s. As the record-breaking February figures show, it does seem that contemporary art operates independently of economic cycles.
It may seem contrary to the spirit of the times, but collectors are seizing the opportunity to sell to a keen market. Barker adds: “The mood is very good. Yes, there’s a credit crunch, but there’s also a lot of wealth in the world.”
And he says supply has never been better in contemporary art: “There is a steady flow of fresh works coming to the market and great opportunities for collectors putting together superb portfolios.”
One reason is the increasing globalisation of the art world — artists from hitherto less-known areas are being noticed, too. “Indian and Iranian art has become more collectible,” Barker says. “This is the first time we’re selling it so prominently — there’s a growing demand in terms of interest and collectors.”
The highlight at Christie’s is La Terre, 1973, by Syed Haider Raza (estimate: £1m-£1.5m), one of India’s leading modern artists and a member of the revolutionary Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group.
Sotheby’s has an untitled paining of kettles and drums with Pop Art pinks and black-edged greys by Subodh Gupta. Although it doesn’t immediately betray Gupta’s origins, he has portrayed the shining steel objects traditionally found in the trousseaux of newly married Indian women. It is expected to sell for between £200,000 and £300,000.
Unlike recent contemporary sales, there are scant Chinese works for sale — the run on the market for 1990s Chinese art has drastically diminished supply. Sotheby’s has just one; a Zhang Xiaogang portrait called Brother And Sister (£400,000-£600,000).
Christie’s has a similar but more expensive Zhang: Father And Daughter, estimated at £900,000 to £1,500,000. For now, it looks like the contemporary art market has evaded the economic storms.
But there is a hint of uncertainty: “We’re not leaving any stones unturned in looking for potential buyers,” Barker admits. “Even if we get to our low estimate, we’ll be happy; these are very high low estimates.”
Whatever happens, the contemporary art circus is coming to town next week, and it’s bound to be colourful.

The post Is Bacon in more demand than Picasso? first appeared on Indian Art News.

India art week at auction houses

visionsart — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:25:00 +0000

Christie’s and Sotheby’s expect contemporary works to fetch millions of pounds

AMIT ROY

Subodh Gupta’s untitled canvas and (above) Raqib Shaw’s Chrysanthemum & Bee, to be auctioned at Sotheby’s
London, June 25: India in transition appears to be the theme of works by contemporary Indian artists, especially Subodh Gupta from Bihar, which are due to be sold at auction at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London.
On Tuesday and Wednesday next week, Sotheby’s is offering eight works by “the cutting-edge and highly sought-after names of Subodh Gupta, Bharti Kher, Anish Kapoor, Raqib Shaw and T.V. Santhosh”.
This will be preceded by an auction on Monday at Christie’s, featuring works by Subodh Gupta, Anish Kapoor and Syed Haider Raza.
It seems the world’s two premier auction houses are almost competing for the best of contemporary Indian art but, collectively, their sales in London and New York have driven up prices so that million-pound-plus figures are no longer rare.
At Sotheby’s, Calcutta-born and London-educated Raqib Shaw’s Chrysanthemum & Bee (“an explosion of iridescent colours, with a rich gold border”), inspired by the Japanese painter and printmaker Kotsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), has a reserve price of £80,000-120,000 (Rs 68 lakh to Rs 1.02 crore).
The auction house has proudly pointed out: “Sotheby’s holds the record for any Indian work of art sold at auction. This was set by Raqib Shaw’s Garden of Earthly Delights III, which sold for £2,708,500 (Rs 22.7 crore) in London in October 2007.”
Sotheby’s says “Indian artists are an ever-growing force in Sotheby’s international sales of contemporary art” and that this summer’s sales in London “will see this trend gather further momentum still”.
At Sotheby’s, Subodh Gupta’s untitled canvas from 2005, estimated at £200,000-300,000, depicts “a vessel stall glistening in the pink dawn of sunrise”.
Over at Christie’s, Subodh Gupta’s Dubai to Calcutta, bronze and aluminium, in three parts, has a reserve price of £150,000-200,000.
“Dubai to Calcutta is one of an important series of works known as Across Seven Seas made in 2006,” states an explanatory note from Christie’s.
“Consisting of a series of aluminium and bronze cast replicas of the kind of luggage that millions of Indian migrant workers bring back to India on trolleys as the materialistic fruit of their labour in other lands, these works are commemorative statues of a widespread contemporary economic phenomenon particularly relevant to Subodh Gupta’s home state of Bihar.”
It adds: “The impoverished Indian state of Bihar has been providing a large percentage of India’s large population of migrant workers for over a hundred years.”
It goes on: “Serving as a kind of opposite to Gupta’s sculptures of commonplace pots and pans, these luxuriously rendered baggage trolleys represent the extraordinary, but in fact also pitiful, material objects from the outside world so proudly brought back into the country by migrant workers, in the same way that the kitchen utensils seem to symbolise the disappearing culture of home.”
This insightful observation also applies to Anish Kapoor, who came to London from Mumbai, while Raza settled in Paris (he received a Padma Bhushan last year).
At Sotheby’s, Kapoor’s untitled sculpture from 2003, which features hollows scooped from alabaster, has an estimate of £1-1.5 million.
At Christie’s, there are three of the sculptor’s works on sale, with the most expensive, featuring a polished purple mirror, given a reserve price of £600,000-800,000.
Kapoor has always striven not to be narrowly classified as “Indian” or “ethnic”, though today claiming he is really the son of Mother India may add to his lustre.
Raza’s La Terre, acrylic on canvas, is estimated to fetch £1,000,000-1,500,000 by Christie’s, which says: “Rooted in Raza’s childhood memories of life growing up in the small and densely forested village of Kakaiya near the Narmada River valley in Madhya Pradesh, the painting is an evocative expression of the rich density and strong sensory life inherent with the deep, warm, blackness of the Indian night.”
Raza, who has lived in France, has given a quote on what has driven him: “I have never left India. I love my country and I am proud of it. I have been linked with the profound spiritual, religious message that India has to give to Indians and to the world of which we are forgetful at times, even in India.”

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