Christie's exhibition to highlight works of Raza, Gaitonde

Art aficionados will get to see works of masters like Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Syed Haider Raza, Jehangir Sabavala, Francis Newton Souza, Jagdish Swaminathan and more at the upcoming exhibition of Christie's in the capital.

The exhibition will be open to public on Wednesday and Thursday, at The Taj Mahal Hotel ahead of their being taken to New York for the the auction on September 14.

On display will be a masterpiece of Gaitonde that displays a kind of non-objective chiaroscuro and represents a cornerstone in his oeuvre. The work is estimated at $1,800,000-$2,200,000. With Gaitonde's unmistakable treatment of the canvas using roller and pallet knife, layering, adding and taking away pigment, the painting conveys his artistic philosophy through its ebbs and flows.

Another attraction, Raza's L'Orage (The Tempest) is a fitting title for the climax of his expressionistic use of colour. Estimated at $1,000,000-$1,500,000, this is not only homage to home but the personification of home. Here, Raza invokes a deep sense of land and night by fusing abstract, representational and symbolic forms into a powerful and mystic expression of the mood and atmosphere of the stormy Indian landscape. Rooted in Raza's childhood memories of life growing up in the small and densely forested village of Kakaiya, near the Narmada River valley in what is now Madhya Pradesh, the painting is an evocative expression of the warm, pervasive darkness of the Indian night.

The New York auction will be part of Asian Art Week in New York and will present paintings by leading modern Indian masters alongside significant contemporary works by Bharti Kher, Subodh Gupta, Shilpa Gupta and Sheba Chhachhi.

Also included are significant works by South Asian modernists George Keyt, Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Rashid Choudhury and Sheikh Mohammed Sultan. The sale offers an overview of the past 100 years of Indian art.

Christie's last two auctions of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art in Mumbai and London have set new benchmarks for Gaitonde, including the new world auction record for any modern Indian work of art.

--IANS

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