A 1995 Tyeb Mehta painting and 54 paintings by contemporary Indian artists reimagined as a deck of playing cards broke records at Christie's London South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction, finds out Ornella D'Souza
It was 70 years ago that six of India's contemporary artists – FN Souza, MF Husain, SH Raza, SK Bakre, KH Ara and HA Gade – formed The Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG) in 1947. The 22nd edition of the annual London South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art auction commemorated this vital juncture in Indian art history on May 25 evening. Sixty two of the 68 lots collectively sold for £5,901,625/$7,660,310 and among these 14 sold above $100,000.
Tyeb Mehta’s 1994 work, Untitled (Woman on Rickshaw) painting, set a new world auction record for the artist and highest price – £2,741,000/$3,557,818 – in the South Asian Art category globally in 2017. The painting, an analogy for strife and struggle, shows a woman atop a hand-pulled rickshaw – a leitmotif that popped up in Mehta's works since 1950s. “The rickshaw is not a simple means of transport but a sign of bondage,” the late artist is to have said of his work.
However, Lot 67, 'Taash ke Patte', a British Council (BC) commissioned work to celebrate its 40th anniversary, was the second highest auctioned work. It opened at £60,000 and came under the hammer at £281,000/$363,457 (with premium) within three minutes.
The 2016 work, 54 playing cards were distributed to 54 Indian contemporary artists to recreate artworks in a medium of their choice of the card they'd received. The reimagined deck replicates a 1976 commission called The Deck of Cards involving 54 British artists – Howard Hodgkin, Allen Jones and David Hockney – that BC helped take on tour to 22 countries. The cards reflect a motley of styles: Arpita Singh's 'Queen of Spades' painting ink is redolent of the kantha embroidery tradition that she studied at the Weavers’ Service Centre in the 1960s; Krishen Khanna's 'Jack of Clubs' is a besotted lover with a flower and upturned collar; Ram Rahman's 'Five of Clubs' might be the shutter of a tailor shop with a club at the bottom right reflecting the card suit and Shilpa Gupta's 'Three of Hearts' has three intertwined figures in outlined in orange that reflects Gandhi's see, hear or speak no evil. A phantasmagorical Thukral & Tagra painting graces the reserve of every card.
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