One of the city’s leading art galleries is auctioning works the first time from its own inventory. Team Viva reports
While a reclining Ganesha playing ball with the moon and Nandi balanced on his knee greets you from an early 1990s MF Husain frame, Jamini Roy’s gouache on cardboard displays sleek strokes capturing a breastfeeding mother poised in wondrous grace. And there is an abstract composition by none other than Rabindranath Tagore.
Come Sunday, art connoisseurs will get plenty of options to choose from the auction, “20th century Indian Art”, by DAG Modern at The Imperial at Janpath. Seventy works of Indian art by 65 artists, consisting of the most significant practitioners and innovators of Indian modernism, will be on display.
The featured works cover a period of 100 years, ranging from a powerful instance of the early Bengal style of the 19th century featuring a fierce Kali astride Shiva, to the most cutting-edge modernist expression from the late 20th century. What makes this auction special is that the gallery does not need to buy art works for auction or pay the buyer’s premium because they are tapping into their repertoire. This has allowed them to price the collection from the affordable to the most exclusive. Says Kishore Singh, president of DAG Modern, “We have the largest collection of artworks in India which alone differentiates them from others, thereby making their auctions an overview of Indian art as a whole.”
All six founding members of the Progressive Artists’ Group of Bombay are featured with their rare works on display, be it a painting from FN Souza’s “black” period or glimpses of his “heads” series, M. F. Husain’s Indian response to the Biblical Three Graces or a 1970s abstract canvas in rich, earthy tones by S. H. Raza. Besides, there are significant works by associate member-artists of the group such as Ram Kumar and Krishen Khanna.
The leading names of Indian art are showcased through narrative, figurative or abstract works, paintings, sculpture and prints by a master print-maker. The works include among others, a refined work on the Mother and Child theme by master folk modernist-Jamini Roy, an academic work in response to Edouard Manet’s celebrated painting Olympia, a landscape by celebrated academic painter-SG Thakar Singh, and works by Jehangir Sabavala, K. G. Subramanyan, Madhvi Parekh, Sunil Das, Himmat Shah and Avinash Chandra.
This is the first time that the gallery is auctioning art works from its own collection. The gallery collects art works from its sourced acquisitions. Its collection of 20th century art includes all the great masters and their senior peers, whether from Bengal, Santiniketan, Mumbai, Baroda, New Delhi, Cholamandal (Chennai), as well as Indian artists who lived and practised overseas.
“We believe that introducing these master artists to buyers at auctions houses is critical for preserving their legacy. An auction is a perfect way to let the market evaluate their worth”, said Ashish Anand, managing director and CEO of DAG Modern.
“Offering artworks for as less as a lakh of Indian rupees to over a crore, the auction brings outstanding works at extremely attractive prices, matched by our proven expertise, as part of our endeavour to create new audience and markets for Indian art”, he claimed.