The cynosure of all eyes is Lot 222, the 1972 acrylic on canvas painting by Raza titled ‘Tapovan’
A total of 75 lots involving artworks by the likes of Tyeb Mehta, SH Raza, VS Gaitonde, Bhupen Khakhar, Akbar Padamsee, Jehangir Sabavala from India are up for bids at Christie’s annual South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art on March 21.
The cynosure of all eyes is Lot 222, the 1972 acrylic on canvas painting by Raza titled ‘Tapovan’ (forest of meditation). It shows his transitioning from French style of painting landscapes of villages stumbling down hillsides to the abstract, along with looking at Rajput paintings for composition and form, and the artist’s memories of growing up in densely forested villages of Central India. Eight other compositionally strong works of Raza are lined up for auction.
A 1980 ‘Untitled’ work by VS Gaitonde is another biggie. It reflects the point in his career when he juxtaposed paper cut-outs with layers of paint. Gaitonde’s ‘Untitled’ (1979) work had created a world record for modern India art in the 2015 Christie’s sale, going at 237 million INR. “He knew exactly the colours he wanted to use,” says Sonal Singh, Head of Department, South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, Christie’s. “Gaitonde’s all about subtlety. Here, the illuminated surface could be the sea or the floor of an ocean. He and Rothko are quite similar. Both were about achieving perfect balance and peace.” Gaitonde’s ‘Three Portraits of MF Husain’ (1962) are also on auction.
Tyeb Mehta’s sensibilities were emotionally opposite to the zen-loving Gaitonde as reflected in his 1994 acrylic on canvas titled ‘Two Figures’, estimated at $1,200,000 – 1,800,000. “Deeply affected by the Partition, his works reflected a duality of being torn between anguish and relief. Mehta’s Mahishasura, a violent and energetic depiction of good over evil, was the first painting in Indian art to have sold for over a million dollars,” explains Singh. It went for $1.5 million under the hammer in 2015.
Some rare Souzas also make it to the selection. Souza’s ‘Young Ladies from Belsize Park’, lot 243, screams Pablo Picasso, as it is an ode to the Spanish master’s ‘Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). “Many artists copied Picasso, and Souza copied this one, the ladies of pleasure, 60 years later”, says Singh, who says that Souza, with Raza and Padamsee, had met Picasso in 1951 in Paris and had called the encounter a defining moment. His nudes and Christ are also up for auction.
Lot 214 is Sabavala’s triptych ‘Heat Haze’ (1962) of angular architecture bathed in sunlight through different times of the day. “This work, unseen since the 1960s after it was sold to an American collector, is critical, as it documents Sabavala’s move from Cubism to formulate his own artistic language,” says Singh. About the Manjit Bawa oil on canvas ‘Goat and Tree’ (2002) in his typical portrayal of the figurative against a flat plane, she says, “Bawa, though often looked at as a post-modernist, doesn’t belong to any group or style and is very popular for his use of colour and modern interpretation of the Indian painting.”
Other key works on auction are by Atul Dodiya, Zarina Hashmi, George Keyt from Sri Lanka, and Abdur Rahman Chughtai from Pakistan.
For more details, check: https://www.christies.com/
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 "Lot 222, the 1972 acrylic on canvas painting by Raza titled ‘Tapovan’")
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