A season for the hammer

Auction houses are bringing collections to the market

One of the challenges for the Indian art community is to source works of high quality, something that gets accentuated when simultaneous auctions compete for “property” with which to lure the buyer. This is also a reason why the same artists find representation, confining the bidder to a body of artists so that auctioneers can “guarantee” sales. If one were to make a bucket list of auction artists at the top end, it would include, and be limited by, V S Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta,

S H Raza, F N Souza, M F Husain, Amrita Sher-Gil, Ram Kumar and Jamini Roy. Any permutation of these will guarantee a sale, with auctioneers pushing works by other artists only to complete the quorum, offer some variety — and hopefully build the next generation of auctionable artists.

This winter’s sales are particularly interesting with Sotheby’s first auction in India on November 29. It was a matter of some speculation what Sotheby’s cover lot would be. Christie’s had made a mark for itself with Gaitonde and Tyeb Mehta, so there was conjecture on who Sotheby’s might choose for its cover lot, but the auction house has chosen to play it safe with a 1993 Tyeb Mehta painting, Durga Mahisasura Mardini at an estimate of Rs 200-300 million. Many will be watching to see if the painting sets a new auction record for India, particularly since it appears difficult for Sotheby’s. It is noteworthy (but hardly exceptional) that one painting alone should equal almost half the value of the entire sale which has a lower estimate of approximately Rs 430 million.

For most part, Sotheby’s Boundless India sale is predictable enough, but the auction house has attempted to set itself apart from Christie’s and others by consciously including elements that are refreshing, if not entirely convincing — photographs at what many consider aggressive estimates, posters, a nod to contemporary art, and furniture, pointing to a direction it might explore further in India.

Saffronart has a twin auction online format with its contemporary sale on December 4-5 and its modern sale on December 5-6. Pundole’s is leading the season with its auction on November 22, and Dubai-based Artiana (December 6-10) is the smallest with a mixed bag of offerings, while AstaGuru has still to announce its dates and release its catalogue for December. For the bidder, this offers a variety of choices — Husain and Souza seem to be the flavour of the season again. Saffronart is offering the widest choice of artists, and Pundole’s seems to have similarly diversified to offer works by a larger range of artists than usual. Auction houses are also bringing collections to the market, so Sotheby’s has works from architect Balkrishna Doshi’s collection and sculptor Pradeep Dasgupta’s estate, Saffronart’s contemporary auction is from the Amaya collection, Pundole’s has its Zarin and Stan Walsh collection.

Ever since the Guggenheim retrospective, interest in Gaitonde has peaked, but there are hardly any works by the artist on offer this winter, though Bhupen Khakhar seems to be enjoying a high season following the Tate Modern retrospective. Interest in Amrita Sher-Gil remains high, though this season has seen only one canvas on offer. More remarkably, sculptors seem to be gaining some traction — other than Dasgupta, Adi Davierwalla and Sankho Chaudhuri are reclaiming some space, and S K Bakre seems well on the way to create a bellwether record for himself. Ravinder Reddy, of course, remains a bankable sculptor. With fewer Himmat Shahs in the market, it is little wonder auction houses are finding it difficult to source his works. Mostly, with punters ambivalent about market sentiment, how much these auctions pull in will be a pointer to how 2019 will fare for the art market.

Kishore Singh is a Delhi-based writer and art critic. These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which he is associated