Works by Indian modernists to go on display before Sotheby's auction

The leading proponents of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group -- Francis Newton Souza, Ram Kumar, Maqbool Fida Husain and Syed Haider Raza -- will star in Sotheby's upcoming exhibition at the Taj Mahal Palace here.

The show, scheduled to be held on September 20-21, will feature 10 paintings that will be unveiled here before going under the hammer at Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art Auction in London on October 23.

According to the auction house, the show will present an opportunity for art connoiseurs and collectors to discover a number of rarely-seen works by Indian modernists that have, until now, remained hidden away in private collections.

Exhibits will include a still-life by Souza, inspired by his Catholic upbringing; one of the finest examples from Kumar's abstract series of works on Benares; three of Husain's Picasso-inspired works; and a rare painting of a tomato by Raza, one of the only three known works to show a fruit or vegetable.

"The trailblazing Progressive artists forged a new path for artistic production in India after Independence.

"Rejecting traditional academic artistic practices, these rebellious Fathers and Mothers of Modernism' embraced the influences of the Western avant-garde. The result was a beautiful amalgamation of East' and West'," Ishrat Kanga, Head of Sotheby's London sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art said.