Christie's second sale in Mumbai next month offers a total of 80 artworks, including those by V S Gaitonde whose painting sold for a record Rs 23.7 crore, at the auction house's India debut last yearend.
Gaitonde's 1998 abstract green work, one of the last the artist executed before his death in 2001, along with a vivid painting of a falling bull by Tyeb Mehta are among highlights in the upcoming auction on December 11.
Auctioneers have estimated Gaitonde's work, to fetch between Rs 5.5 crore to Rs 7 crores. Last year his work sold for much more than anticipated and created a record fetching the highest price ever for a work of modern South Asian art in India.
"After an accident, Gaitonde stopped painting for a while and between the late 80s and the 90s he did very few works. This is one of his last from 1998. So we are really very privileged to have it. It has never been seen in public before. It is a real discovery," said Nishad Avari, Associate Specialist, Christie's.
Mehta's (Falling Bull) has ben estimated to sell between Rs 8.5 crore to Rs 12 crores. Another work by the artist (Girl in Love) is pegged to fetch between Rs 70 lakhs to Rs 90 lakhs at the upcoming sale.
"The bull is an important image that stuck with Mehta for a long time. He made a film for the government in the 1950s called 'Kudal' which was about a slaughter house in Bandra and the image of this bull has stuck with him for his entire career as a metaphor of suffering and existential crisis," Avari said.
Along with Mehta and Gaitonde, select pieces of Jamini Roy, S H Raza, Ramkumar, Shailesh Mukherjee, Rabindranath Tagore and Abanindranath Tagore, Arpita Singh, Jehangir Sabavala, A Balasubramanium, Zarin, Nasreen Mohamedi and Bhupen Khakkar among others were showcased at a preview at the Taj Mansingh hotel here today.
Works by 10 leading contemporary artists like Anish Kapoor, Subodh Gupta, Dayanita Singh, Rashid Rana and others have donated artworks to be sold at auction to benefit Khoj, an artist residency.
