The 1988 oil on canvas "Falling figure with Bird" is the fourth highest price achieved amongst Mehta's other paintings sold across the world.
The late master's work was among 53 sold works out of a total of 75 works in Saffronart's annual online Autumn auction that featured 35 modern and contemporary Indian artists and raked up a total sales of 21.04 crores (USD 3.9 million).
Said to be one of the most important ones from Mehta's suite of falling figures, the painting draws on both Indian and Western myths and legends depicting an androgynous human figure entangled with that of a bird.
The figures, locked together in endless free fall, convey not only the anxiety and disquiet that the Mumbai -born Mehta carried with him following his experiences of the horrors of Partition and war, but also his engagement with modernist concepts like existentialism and "Universal Man".
Before the sale Saffronart had said they expected the work to fetch between Rs 8.1 crores- Rs 10.8 crores.
Mehta who died in 2009 was the first Indian artist to break the Rs 1 crore barrier. In the year 2002 at a Christie's auction Mehta's "Celebration" fetched Rs 1.5 crore. In the year 2005 his work "Mahishasura" again crossed the USD 1 million mark. In 2008 one of his paintings sold for USD 2 million. In December 2005, Mehta's painting "Gesture" was sold for 3.1 crores at the Osian's auction.
Previously, in the 2011 Saffronart Autumn Art auction, Tyeb Mehta's "Untitled" was the top lot and sold for Rs 7.19 crores. MORE
