Fifteen years ago — a lifetime in Indian art, according to some — Amrita Jhaveri started collecting modern and contemporary art somewhat more seriously than most, becoming one of the earliest specialists with a calibrated eye for picking art works that represented the best of each generation’s artists. The catalyst for that original impulse had been triggered by the inclusion of a work she’d acquired — “even before I had a flat”, she laughs during our conversation — in the Tate’s Garden City exhibition, and now Jhaveri seems bent on returning that favour by providing the Indian art market with a pleasant jolt.
Jhaveri began her “broad historical collection at a time when there was no art awareness” — she wrote the first book on the subject, turned consultant, opened a gallery in Mumbai — but with more works in storage than she cares, it was clear she was ready to move to a phase “beyond just ownership” with an even deeper engagement with art. “Having artworks is a responsibility,” she says. “I’d tried my best over the years to loan works so others could enjoy them”, but it was also time “to do something for the market that has been much of muchness for some while”.
Amrita Jhaveri’s single-owner sale scheduled for March 19 in New York has shaken up the art market like nothing at the ongoing India Art Fair. “Over the past year I’d been thinking of the changes in the art market with galleries shutting or opening, a new generation of artists coming through, and the possibility of newer opportunities.” When South Asian art specialist Yamini Mehta broke her 14-year tryst with Christie’s to join Sotheby’s, “the opportunity for a single-owner sale became very compelling”.
Sotheby’s Indian sales in the previous year had been disappointing while the Indian art market itself was in a stagnant phase. Jhaveri’s adrenalin jab of 43 lots for the auction house’s first evening sale of Indian art consisting of works by Tyeb Mehta, V S Gaitonde, M F Husain, F N Souza, Ram Kumar, Arpita Singh, Bhupen Khakhar, Jogen Chowdhury and others valued by it between $4-5 million hopes to infuse that interest through Jhaveri’s by now famous “eye”. “It’s one of the finest collections to come up for auction,” claims Mehta, and she might not be far wrong given the interest it is stirring among collectors who want to be present at the black-tie event in the Big Apple.
Leading the sale is a 1982 Tyeb Mehta in an uncharacteristically subdued palette, followed by a glowing S H Raza, while a brightly rendered Gaitonde is an unusual palette for this reclusive artist. But at a Sotheby’s dinner in the capital this week where some of the works were on display, and where a power contingent from Sotheby’s was in attendance, it was two Husains (Puppet Dancers and The Horse that Looked Back) and Souza’s The Crucifixion that proved to be compelling draws.
Sotheby’s, which has to its credit Edvard Munch’s $120 million The Scream as the highest-ever price achieved at an auction for a work of art, “have been the underdogs with reference to Indian modern art”, reflects Jhaveri, “I knew they would push this sale”. Estimating that the 43 lots make up less than 10 per cent of her collection in numbers and less than 20 per cent in value, it’s going to be keenly watched and not just by collectors but by auction houses Saffronart, Pundole’s and competitor Christie’s which has had the most record prices for Indian art, ironically under Mehta’s watch. “If I get $ 4 million” — the low estimate — “I’ll be over the moon,” says Jhaveri, while analysts are already predicting upwards of $ 7 million on the gavel. If that happens — and the dice appears loaded in its favour — happy days might finally be here again.
Kishore Singh is a Delhi-based writer and art critic. These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which he is associated
