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Monday, Dec 03, 2007
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Auction of Indian paintings

Vaiju Naravane

Bose Krishnamachari, Stretched Bodies, 2007, acrylic on canvas

PARIS: A hundred and two paintings by contemporary Indian artists went on display last Friday at Artcurial, one of Paris’ most prestigious auction houses, prior to going under the hammer on Monday, December 3.

This is the first ever auction of contemporary Indian art to be held in Paris which has so far tended to snub modern Indian art despite the fact that several of India’s most renowned painters attended the highly regarded Ecole des beaux-arts in the French capital.

Indeed, S. H. Raza, Velu Vishwanadhan, Sujata Bajaj, Satish Panchal, Akkitham Narayanan, Indrajit Sahdev, Anju Chaudhury and others continue to live in Paris. The French have been slow to recognise India – slow to invest in the new business opportunities the country offers and slow to appreciate Indian talent that has flowered on its own soil.

Raza has, on many occasions, confided his disappointment at the lack of enthusiasm for his work in France, his second home. “I have lived here, studied here, spent a large part of my life here and my dear late wife was French. The world is recognising my art; not the French. It both baffles and saddens me,” he told this correspondent.

“Sometimes it is a case of not being able to see what is in front of your nose. It is astounding that Raza’s paintings which sell for millions of dollars and which adorn walls across the world hardly get mention here. Christie’s, Saffronart, Sotheby’s have all taken a march on the French as far as Indian art is concerned. Because what is on display here is certainly not the best India has to offer,” said an Indian artist present at the viewing.

Artcurial admits they have come late on the scene. As the curator of this auction Hervé Perdirolle says in his introduction to the catalogue: “The sale is part of Artcurial’s strategic interest in Asian art and inaugurates a department devoted to modern and contemporary Indian art. This first sale is meant to be both modest and ambitious - modest for its commitment to representative choice of still affordable modern and contemporary works, and ambitious for its determination to present major works that are both rare and exceptional.”

PRIZED PAINTINGS: Sayed Haider Raza, Rajasthan, 1984, acrylic on canvas

The exhibition is a double bill entitled “Chinese and Indian Art” and features 51 Chinese paintings.

A 1984 painting by S. H. Raza entitled Rajasthan is the most coveted and expensive item in the Indian section with an estimated price between € 450,00 and € 550,000. The most prized Chinese painting by the 1958-born Zhang Xiaogang entitled Comrade from the artist’s bloodline series is estimated at between € 1 million and € 1.2 million.

Rajasthan, is a large dazzling canvas (175x175 cm) in which dramatic blacks, oranges and greens predominate. Another canvas by Raza depicts a scintillating ‘Bindu’ in shades of red and black. The ‘Bindu’, a smaller canvas than Rajasthan is estimated to fetch between € 120,000 and € 150,000.

Amongst artists whose works are in this sale include Jogen Chaudhury, Akbar Padamsee, Francis Newton Souza, Prabhakar Barwe, Farhad Hussain,Shibu Natesan,Vaikuntan, Satish Panchal and Sohan Qadri. There is also a gouache by Jamini Roy and a line drawing by K. K.Hebbar.

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