This seasons Saffronart auction top-lines the works of three demised Indian painters UP for grabs at the Saffronart online auction,which is slotted to take place on September 21-22,are nine paintings by M F Husain,who passed away on June 9 this year,and two by Jehangir Sabavala,who died as recently as on September 3. Given their recent demise,the works of these two artists might just end up jostling for top place this season. As the past trends indicate,the demise of an artist usually puts a premium on his works. However,things in the art market are not all that simple any more,especially with buyers becoming more discerning. It is not just scarcity of work but also its quality and the provenance that defines the market price. It should be an interesting auction and we are expecting a lot of interest in these two artists. However,we also have high quality works by Tyeb Mehta that have been sourced from a New York collector and also an SH Raza, says Dinesh Vazirani,director of Saffronart. The premium 1958 oil on canvas by SH Raza is sourced from a collector in the UK. While this Raza canvas marks the artists transition from figurative work to his more well-known abstracts some of which also feature in the auction,Mehta gets top billing because of the paucity of his works in the market. Untitled by Mehta to go up for auction is priced at a starting bid of Rs 4.4 crore and can go up to Rs 6.6 crore. It is unique since its neither a Kali,a Falling Figure or a Mahishasura Mardini,but appears to be a male and female figure emerging from the same body. As far as I know,Mehta has not done any work that he has titled Ardhnareshwar,but the symbiotic figure of a male and a female has been part of his oeuvre, says Yashodhara Dalmia,an art historian and an independent curator based in New Delhi. Let us wait and watch which way the hammer falls. The preview of the auction,that took place at the Oberoi Hotel in Delhi on Tuesday evening,saw artist Krishen Khanna chatting with art conservator and historian Rupika Chawla about the fact that though Mehtas canvases are now priced at Rs 6 crore,he never got to see any of the money. There was talk of getting a seven per cent royalty for artists at the auctions,but its been years since that talk and quite frankly,I could not care any more, said Khanna. Chawla,however,feels younger artists should follow up on this. Artists who are young and full of energy should take up the cause. It would have been especially good for Tyeb (Mehta) to get royalties on his paintings since he never saw material prosperity like Husain or Raza, she says. Meanwhile,Saffronart has pulled out all the stops and is travelling to Mumbai and New York for the preview before the actual auction. Works of more than 50 artists will go under the hammer at this auction.
