The artistic '70s

As Christie's celebrates the last 100 years of Indian art with an auction in New York, 10 selected works will be exhibited in India

The 1970s were a time of transformation in Indian art. The visual language was changing with the mythical and the fantastical inching its way into the canvases. Folk and tribal imagery was being used to talk about larger issues, such as seen in the works of artists like Gogi Saroj Pal and K G Subramanyan. At that time, in sharp contrast to canvases featuring coruscating hues, was the work of Vasudeo Gaitonde, who was gathering acclaim far and wide for his sensitive use of light and colour.

One such canvas from 1970, which had been one of the centrepieces in the iconic collection of philanthropist Jamshed Jehangir Bhabha for over three decades, will be auctioned by Christie's during its South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale in New York next month.

"The planes of paint spread over the canvas, a reminder of nothing other than themselves… shafts of light which seem to emerge from the depths," wrote critic Yashodhara Dalmia about Gaitonde's work in Indian Contemporary Art Post Independence. This "Untitled" canvas (estimate: $1,800,000-2,200,000), along with nine other works by monumental artists like S H Raza, Jehangir Sabavala, F N Souza and Jagdish Swaminathan will be exhibited in New Delhi next week ahead of their flight to New York. These 10 form part of the 100-plus lots to be auctioned at Christie's Rockefeller Centre on September 14.

"This Gaitonde work is from a time when he was at the peak of his career. The following year he also received a Padma Shri," says Sonal Singh, head of department (South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art), Christie's India. "The practice of using palette knife, roller and layering is so quintessential Gaitonde."

The other significant work to be auctioned, one that will be exhibited in Delhi, is Raza's L'Orage (the tempest), which he painted in 1975. The painting (estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000), rooted in Raza's childhood spent in the densely forest village of Kakaiya, articulates his longing for the Indian landscape.

"Raza uses gestural brushstrokes and a heavy impasto to build up this stormy autumnal scene, both stylistic devices that foreshadow his later, more abstract landscapes of the 1960s and 70s," wrote art scholar-columnist Uma Nair in 2014. Each work in the catalogue comes with a detailed provenance - a feature that signifies a shift in collecting styles across the world. "The works are important, but collectors are now placing importance on the narrative and the history of the work," says Singh.

Interestingly, the sale, which offers an overview of the past 100 years of Indian art-making, features a significant number of contemporary artworks - a remarkable increase from its past auctions, which focused more on the Modern Masters.

"There is so much happening in India in this space. We, as an auction house, are extremely interested in it, as are collectors from various parts of the world," says Singh.

So, the sale will feature works by Bharti Kher, Subodh Gupta, Sheba Chhachhi and Shilpa Gupta, besides important works by South Asian Modernists like Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Rashid Choudhury and Sheikh Mohammed Sultan.

The 10 selected highlights will be exhibited at the Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (open to public) on August 24 and 25