Rare double-sided painting by Ram Kumar to go under hammer at upcoming auction

A rare double-sided oil on board painting by renowned artist Ram Kumar will be among the 45 works of art that will go under the hammer at Mumbai-based auction house Prinsep's upcoming spring Modern Art Auction.

The online sale will be held on April 24-25.

Kumar's work featuring two of his paintings -- "Family" (1960) and "Mazes of the Mind" (1961), on either side of the board, is estimated at Rs 1.5-3 crore.

"The work is of historical significance as it is a double-sided work that marks a transition in the artist's practice from his early figurative paintings to his later abstract phase," the auction house said in a statement on Friday.

While "Family" depicts a figurative scene of two adults protectively nurturing a child, "Mazes of the Mind", presumed to be painted immediately afterwards, blends the figurative with an abstract style more familiar in Kumar's later works.

An early Untitled (Goan Village) landscape by Francis Newton Souza, estimated at Rs 40-50 lakh, will also be part of the sale.

Painted in 1948, shortly after Souza's expulsion from the J J School of Art in Bombay, the work takes inspiration from the artist's Goan roots, reflecting his bold use of colour and line.

The artist painted it a year after the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group was formed, of which Souza was a founding member.

"The work shows elements of what the PAG wanted to paint for a 'New India' and Souza's own take on modern Indian art," Prinseps said.

Also on offer will be contemporary Indian artist Manu Parekh's "CRY".

In the work, he refers to the Bhagalpur blindings that occurred in Bihar in 1979 and 1980, evoking a debate around capital punishment and forcing an important insight into the human condition.

It is estimated at Rs 15-20 lakh.

The auction house, with this sale, is also marking its entry into the medium of photography.

Jyoti Bhatt's Untitled (a set of 10 photographs of various artists) are expected to fetch Rs 8-10 lakh.

The collection is a strong example of Bhatt's direct and informal style and depict many of the icons of Indian modernism including M F Husain, Nasreen Mohamedi, Himmat Shah and Krishen Khanna.

Other artists featuring in the sale will include Somnath Hore, V S Gaitonde, M F Husain, Zarina Hashmi as well as photographers like Raghu Rai and Vivan Sundaram.

Before going online, the works will be up for viewing at the Taj Art Gallery in Mumbai on April 20-21.