The Hindu : New Delhi News : Indian art all set to go places, quite literally

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Indian art all set to go places, quite literally

Christie's to auction works of Indian artists in New York on September 20 this year

NEW VISTAS: A painting by eminent artist Tyeb Mehta

The world's leading art auctioneer, Christie's, is all set to auction the works of some of the best-known artists of the country at "Modern and Contemporary Indian art" in New York on September 20 this year.

Unveiling the works of some Indian artists that will go under the hammer at Hotel Imperial in New Delhi on Tuesday, Christie's International Director of Asian Art Hugo K. Weihe said: "Our goal is to make Indian art go international. Therefore, we are showcasing Indian art works in different parts of the world. We have displayed works of Indian artists in New York and had sales in Dubai also.

In May this year, we staged Indian art in Hong Kong as an Asian contemporary art along with Chinese and Korean artists. So now we are selling Indian art to Chinese, Koreans and Americans. We have been very selective while choosing the artists for the auction in New York."

Works of established Indian artists including Tyeb Mehta, Akbar Padamsee, Francis Newton Souza, Syed Haider Raza, Ganesh Pyne, Subodh Gupta and Hema Upadhyay are being showcased at the two-day exhibition that opened at Hotel Imperial.

Sourced from galleries and private collections, the works will travel to New York where they would go in for international sale. Highlights of the exhibition include sublime landscape by Souza, a magnificent work by Tyeb Mehta previously featured in the 1987 Swiss exhibition "Coups de Coeur" and a stellar group of works by Raza spanning his career from the early figurative landscapes to abstract expressionism to his geometric phase as inspired by his Indian roots.

With Christie's leading the way into the million-dollar universe last year, when Tyeb Mehta's "Mahisasura" sold for nearly 1.6 million dollars, the works of some of the finest Indian artists stand a good chance at the upcoming auction.

Stretching back over 200 years, Christie's has had a long and fruitful association with Indian art. In fact, the recent surge of international interest in Indian art was pioneered by Christie's, who were the first auction house to stage contemporary Indian art sales in London during the 1990s, moving the sales to New York and Hong Kong in recent years. -- Madhur Tankha

-- Madhur Tankha

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