Works of India’s most prominent modern painters will be soon presented for on line auction

Kala Ghoda based online auction AstaGuru will present its first Modern Indian Art auction for the year 2019 on March 27 and 28. The auction has some stellar works in store for art collectors, Astaguru will present 40 lots, each one selected after meticulous research. Auction has works of modern Indian Artists such as Nandalal Bose, F N Souza, Jehangir Sabavala, M F Husain, S H Raza, Ganesh Pyne, Bhupen Khakkar, Adi Davierwala, V S Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, Jogen Chowdhury, Manjit Bawa, J Swaminath, and Prabhakar Barwe to name a few.

One of the key artwork that is going to be part of the sale is Nandalal Bose’s work titled Arjuna Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s play Chitrangada.

Another artwork that is influenced by a Rabindranath Tagore play is Ganesh Pyne’s Raktakarabi. This artwork is of great importance since it was executed during his formative years and aided his visual vocabulary. Paintings revolving around the theme of death became a huge part of Pyne’s work, and in this work, he depicts the scene where Nandini is lamenting the death of her fellow patriot and lover while the dominion of tyranny is represented by the standing figure in the red cape.

A painting titled ‘Portrait of a Girl’ by Husain is of importance. Not only does the work highlight Husain’s excellent portraiture skills but it also shows his long tryst with India’s first political family. Always enamoured by women in powerful positions, this particular work’s inspiration was Indira Gandhi. It was painted around the time Indira Gandhi was appointed as the first female President of the National Congress.

The auction also features two important works by PAG founder Francis Newton Souza. The first one is quite unique because it moves away from Souza’s usual depiction of human figures and depicts a horse in captivity Painted in 1963. The second work of Souza present in the auction goes back to Souza’s roots in Goa and his Catholic upbringing. Titled ‘The last Howl from the Cross’, this work by F N Souza depicts Christ in the moment of pain and anguish.

Another highlight is a seminal work by S H Raza from his iconic La Terre Series. It marks a transitional phase in Raza’s work. This particular work with the colour composition reminiscent of the rich topography of India expresses his desire to return home.

While other artists dabbled with abstraction or inculcated it in their work much later, Gaitonde always stuck to this style. His works are a world within themselves. The Lot present in this auction is a painting from the year 1963 and was originally part of the collection from the Glenbarra Art Museum Japan.

The auction also features a painting by Tyeb Mehta from the year 1962, which is representative of the expressionist paintings that the artist did during that period. The work is executed with crude brush strokes, creating a heavily textured surface.

The tribal series forms an important part of Swaminathan’s oeuvre and a 1992 painting from this series is a key part of the auction. Swaminathan travelled extensively in the tribal belts of Madhya Pradesh and gain a deeper knowledge about Tribal art form. He saw the value of transcendence present in the tribal and folk art and incorporated it into his own work.

With such iconic artworks part of the collection, Astaguru’s Modern Indian Art auction is a highly anticipated event in the art circle.