Playing to the Gallerists

With its India launch due in December,Christie’s inaugural auction was almost expected to revolve around the usual suspects,celebrated masters of modern Indian art and big names in the global art market,and those associated with Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group. They do feature in it,but the focus will be “a tribute to the pioneering gallerists who shaped India’s modern art” — Khorshed and Kekoo Gandhy.

A press note revealed details of the event scheduled to take place at the Taj Mahal Palace,Mumbai,and a preview in Delhi from December 7 to 9. It said that the centerpiece of the auction will be works from the private collections of the Gandhys,founders of one of India’s oldest commercial art galleries,Gallery Chemould,and the two most significant figures of Indian modern art.

Apart from MF Husain and SH Raza,other notable names such as VS Gaitonde,Ram Kumar,Tyeb Mehta and Jamini Roy from the Gandhys’ private estate collection will dominate the auction. “It is hard to imagine the career of great names of modern art without the encouragement of the Gandhy’s and it is a measure of their vision in the early 1960s that their gallery,under the stewardship of their daughter (Shireen),continues to show contemporary art today,” says Hugo Weihe,International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s.

mumbainewsline@expressindia.com