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| Saffronart online art auction begins on June 10 | |
| Press Trust of India / Mumbai June 3, 2009, 13:16 IST | |
'Saffronart', a leading art auction house in the city will host its annual summer online-art-auction of 'Modern and Contemporary Indian Art' comprising works of 57 noted artists on June 10 and 11.
The auction will take place at www.Saffronart.Com.
The catalogue presents a wide range of Modern and Contemporary Indian art, offering collectors an opportunity to add depth and breadth to their collections.
Notable among the artists featured in the sale are V S Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, Arpita Singh, Akbar Padamsee, M F Hussain, Jogen Chowdhury, Subodh Gupta, Hema Upadhyay, Anju Dodiya and Riyas Komu, Saffronarts CEO and Co-founder, Dinesh Vazirani said in a statement here.
"Saffronart has always been keen on making important works of highly prized Indian artists available to collectors around the world. Today, collectors have become very selective. Keeping this in mind, we have carefully edited this sale, and are committed to presenting extraordinary works at competitive prices," he said.
"This auction also promises to entice new collectors with a number of historically and aesthetically significant works by recognized modernists and younger, contemporary artists," Vazirani said adding the front cover of the catalogue is an important 1984 canvas by modernist Gaitonde.One of India's foremost modern painters, Vasudeo Gaitonde is remembered for the independence, fastidiousness and minimalism of his creative process, as well as for his reclusive nature and limited output.
Gaitonde's works from the 1980s took his visual script of silence to a new level of sophistication. Having mastered the manipulation of colour, light and texture through the meticulous layering and removal of pigment on his surfaces, the artist was able to bestow his paintings with depth and luminosity, simplicity and an air of mystery.
Another significant modern work is Akbar Padamsee's untitled canvas from his 'Metascape' series.
Through his rugged, sweeping landscapes, meticulously faceted with a palette knife, Padamsee manages to simultaneously freeze the passage of time and communicate an impression of the interminable.
These unyielding vistas are marked by other oppositions as well. They are quiet, yet commanding; engaging, yet distant. The artist skillfully uses scale, texture and a dramatic primary palette to convey the overwhelming presence and power of nature in these works.
Also included in the sale is an untitled 2006 canvas by Subodh Gupta, where the artist juxtaposes the polished with the tarnished, the new with the old, bringing into focus the dualistic quality of stainless steel, and, by extension, the dualities of life in India following the country's dramatic economic liberalisation in the 1990s. Pushing the viewer to question value, and the unique ways in which it is translated from traditional to contemporary contexts, this scene foregrounds the importance of outliers and departures from the flattening norms of globalisation and the immense significance of the local within the ascendant global matrix.
Also featuring amongst the contemporary works is Hema Upadhyay landmark mixed-media work, 'Bleeding Hearts'. Combining performance with painting, the personal with the political, Upadhyay's works raise issues of loss, disenchantment and dislocation in modern urban life and, more generally, questions of security and survival in todays violent world.
The artist's 'Bleeding Hearts' series of works is part of her response to violence, both political and domestic, and its aftermath.
In these large works on paper, the artist questions the value of flippant apologies, and whether the deep hurt and wounds caused by such violence can be erased, particularly by decorative or showy flourishes.
The total lower and higher estimates for this auction are Rs 11 crore ($2.3 million) and Rs. 13.9 crore ($3 million) respectively.
The sale will also be accompanied by a illustrated print catalogue, also available online at www.Saffronart.Com.
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