By Uma Nair, IANS
New York : Sotheby’s sale of Indian art including modern paintings and miniatures brought in $6,313,338, with M.F. Husain’s Pagan Mother claiming the top slot with $658,600.
According to Sotheby’s, the sale brought solid prices and senior progressive artists and their associated groups were strongly represented in top prices.
Four works by M.F. Husain were included in the top ten, and of these, Husain’s Pagan Mother achieved the second highest price by the artist at an auction.
Husain, who is in exile in London, turned 92 on Sep 17 and this perhaps is the best birthday gift he could get. Pagan Mother is a brilliant work done in tones of turquoise and Prussian blue in 1956, perhaps the best years of his prodigious outpouring when he was untouched by the commercial market.
Out of 114 lots offered, 28 were unsold.
At second spot was New Delhi-based artist Rameshwar Broota’s Diptych The Other Space that fetched $409,000 against an estimate of $280,000-380,000. It was sold to a non-resident Indian.
At third place was Syed Haider Raza’s untitled work that fetched $313,000 against an estimate of $200,000-250,000. It was sold to a private British bidder.
Fourth was M.F. Husain’s mesmerising light toned work Horse that sold for $301,000.
At number five in the top lots was Francis Newton Souza’s Crucifixion from 1988, which fetched $241,000. This was sold to a private Indian collector.
Jagdish Swaminathan’s untitled work tied at fifth place. Swaminthan evokes interest because he is the inspiration of abstraction in India as the guru of Bhopal Bhavan before it fell to bureaucratic politics and prejudices.
Zara Porter Hill, worldwide head of Sotheby’s Indian and Southeast Asian Art Department, said: “A number of rare and unusual works, as well as the miniatures, also brought exceptional prices, including Herman Linde’s Girl Standing in a Veranda Wearing a Pochampalli Sari, a record for the artist at auction, and a work on paper by Rabindranath Tagore. Of the works, 76.8 percent sold by value.”