By IANS
New York : Tyeb Mehta’s Mahishasura became the toast of the September season as it soared to a comfortable $1.1 million at a Christie’s auction here.
Mehta’s power and Francis Newton Souza’s poise crafted a cohesive auction Thursday with new world records, as Christie’s sale of South Asian modern and contemporary art realized $10.1 million and established 12 new world auction records.
Among the 141 lots offered, Christie’s were more than content with 110 lots selling at niche prices and seeing a 78 percent sale. Bidders, collectors and dealers all noticed the momentum that picked up and held through the sale.
At second spot after Mehta was India’s Francis Newton Souza, whose 1958 oil on board entitled Nude with Fruit went for $657,000 as against an estimate of $300,000-500,000.
Third in the sale and delightfully strong in its credible creation of a market position in Indian and international dictates was Atul Dodiya’s 1996 work Three Painters.
Mumbai-based artist Dodiya’s place in the artistic pantheon has been firmly taking shape. The money generated by Three Painters, which at $541,000 more than tripled its pre-sale estimate, only confirms his position as one of South Asia’s leading artists.
At number four was Souza’s 1959 untitled nude, which from a pre estimate of $350,000-500,000, held a high of $457,000.
Abstractionist artist Ram Kumar’s Jeune Etudiant, a 1958 soothing oil on canvas laid down on board saw a new record as it stoked its own intent at $337,000.
In the cutting-edge contemporary field, many prices wildly exceeded pre-sale estimates including Rameshwar Broota’s untitled ($265,000), T.V. Santhosh’s haunting Across and Unresolved Story ($217,000), Shibu Natesan’s Montage I ($157,000), Ravinder Reddy’s untitled ($187,000) and Pakistani artist Rashid Rana’s extraordinary photo collage A Day in the Life of a Landscape ($133,000).
“The Indian market will hold as long as works of premium quality and aesthetic advantage are brought together,” says Dinesh Vazirani, director of Saffronart that is a leading online auctioneer of contemporary Indian art.
“I think despite market corrections and stock slips, what is important is to look for art that stands out in qualitative terms,” he said after the auction.
With many of the top-selling works Thursday still belonging to the progressive movement artists, the sale was equally driven by extremely strong prices obtained for contemporary artists.
These results certainly bode well for the Asian contemporary art sale in Hong Kong at the end of November, which will include a select group of works by Indian and Pakistani artists.