By IANS,
New York : Subodh Gupta’s “Saat Samunder Paar VII” will be the highlight of Sotheby’s Spring Sale of contemporary Indian art in New York May 14-15.
On these two days, Sotheby’s will feature the work of a number of renowned Indian artists. Highlighting the sales are works by Subodh Gupta, Anish Kapoor, Rameshwar Broota, T.V. Santosh, Chintan Upadhyay, Riyas Komu, Raqib Shaw and Bose Krishnamachari.
In October 2007, Sotheby’s set a record for any Indian work of art sold at auction when Raqib Shaw’s “Garden of Earthly Delights III” sold for $5.4 million (over £2.7 million) in its Contemporary Evening Art sale in London.
Following the strong price $462,000 achieved for Subodh Gupta’s work in The (RED) Auction in February 2008, Sotheby’s will offer another work by Gupta, one of the most important contemporary artists to emerge from India in a generation, in its Evening sale of Contemporary Art in New York.
“Saat Samunder Paar VII”, 2003, comes from a series the artist completed in 2003 entitled “Saat Samundar Paar” or “Across the Seven Seas” (est. $500-700,000).
In these works, Subodh depicts scenes from bustling airports, thereby tapping into a theme central to his entire oeuvre: man’s experience in contemporary society.
Evoking a Hindi idiom referring to the distance one should travel in the search for happiness or the distance travellers come to reach India, the title realizes new significance in the context of the 21st century.
In the present work, Subodh’s iconic luggage-packed trolley takes centre stage, while the figures in the background remain conspicuously inconspicuous, softly fading into the background as anonymous foils to the colourful star of composition.
Here, man is subordinate to the gleaming idol of luggage, painted crisp, bright and precisely detailed. The artist’s critique is multi-faceted referencing myriad contemporary themes including the effects of capitalism, globalisation, media dependency, the collision of tradition with modernity and ultimately, man’s self-awareness.
A sculpture by Gupta, untitled, 2006, will also be included in the Day sale (est.$80-120,000).
Highlighting offering of works by contemporary Indian artists in the Day sale of Contemporary Art will be Anish Kapoor’s brilliantly composed modernist, lacquered bronze sculpture “Blood Solid”, 2001 (est.$250-350,000)
Sotheby’s set a record for a work by Kapoor at the auction in its last evening sale of Contemporary Art (November 2007) when it sold an untitled work for $2.8 million.
Other Day sale highlights will include Rameshwar Broota’s “Shabash Bete”, 2007 (est. $200/300,000); T.V. Santosh’s “Test II”, 2005 (est. $60/80,000); Chintan Upadhyay’s “Smart Alec”, 2007 (est. $40/60,000); Riyas Komu’s “Systematic Citizen XIV”, 2006 (est. $40/60,000); Raquib Shaw’s untitled, 2004 (est. $40/60,000); and Bose Krishnamachari’s untitled (Stretched Bones), circa 2006 (est. $20/30,000).