Positive Vibes
The start of the new financial year (April-March) felt like a good time to take stock of what was happening in the Indian art market, especially since all the major art auctions for South Asian art were held this past February and March.
We had heard murmurs during the India Art Fair in February 2023 that art sales were looking good for Indian Art, both with respect to volume and prices. Indeed, looking at the heady atmosphere at the fair and the soirées this looked to be true. Pundole’s, Christies and Saffron Art had held their auction previews at the Oberoi’s in New Delhi on the same evening during the India Art Fair, which made imminent sense for the interested buyers to mingle and compare the lots on offer.
We are of course tempted to mention the record breakers, which we will, but the idea of doing this analysis was also to see if we could spot new trends, artists, pricing, which might not have made the headlines.
As art market geeks, we continue to watch this space with interest. Here’s our view on the happenings so far.
Starting the Action at Pundole’s
The Spring auction calendar started with Pundole’s auction. Since we had already spotted the rare Raja Ravi Varma (reproductions, as the originals were Germany), including ‘Killing of Kamsa, in the preview in New Delhi, we were keen to see how those lots fared, and we were not disappointed!
Raja Ravi Varma’s ‘Killing of Kamsa’ is a rare work as it shows two different incidents from Krishna’s life on a single canvas. Given the size 14 x 20 inches, this could be a preparatory sketch. The story of the owner itself is also noteworthy. Fritz Schleicher was the master print maker who controlled the running of the Raja Ravi Varma Lithographic press in Mumbai. In 1903 he acquired the works, which were auctioned off by Pundole, after being in the family collection for 120 years!
All Ravi Varma works, including the small format works fetched some of the highest prices recorded for the artist in an auction. Since it is a National Art Treasure artist, the works are likely to remain outside the country. Another reason to revisit the inflexible regulations regarding cross-border movement of National Art Treasures, a subject we have covered in an earlier article.
Another point to note from the Pundole auction was the prevalence of ‘tribal artists’, and paper works getting traction.
Overall, the 83-lot auction achieved approximately Rs 75cr (approx. USD 9.4mn), largely on the back of the Ravi Varma sales, but reasonable take in, as we see from the major auction results below.
Blast from Saffron Art
Saffron Art’s auction, held mid-March, produced quite a few record-breaking lots.
V.S. Gaitonde continued to rule the Indian auction world fetching his second highest sale price (Rs 47.5 cr, approx $5.8mn). This was also the second highest price achieved by an Indian artist in an auction worldwide (the highest obviously also his!).
And there were others as well. Artists such as S. H. Raza, M.F. Husain, Jagdish Swaminathan, Manjit Bawa, all exceeded higher estimates for most of their lots. A quick browse of the auction results also showed that almost lots bettered their respective lower estimates, but our views on this are at the end.
We were particularly pleased to see that Zarina Hashmi, achieved more than double of the higher estimate for her two works on paper.
With only 40 lots in action (of which 38 were sold!), Saffron Art pulled in over USD 9.7mn (including buyer’s premium), or close to Rs 80 crores. Surely some of the highest average price achieved (though of course we can’t measure it as such!), and an affirmation of the depth of the market where established, well-documented artists are finally getting due price recognition.
Even-Sailing at Sotheby’s
The Sotheby’s auction in the third week of March was a mixed bag, with 75-lots totalling approximately USD 7m (including premiums) or approximately Rs 57 cr. Headliner works from S.H. Raza and M.F. Husain well exceeded their estimates and achieved anchoring sales prices for the auction. Other auction stalwarts, such as S.K. Bakre, Mohan Samant, K.K. Hebbar, Ghulam Sheikh, Ram Kumar, Zarina, Meera Mukherjee, Ganesh Haloi, Bhupen Khakkar, Sohan Qadri also fared well, exceeding estimates.
The repertoire also included some artists from Pakistan and Bangladesh with new artists showing range of results and market penetration.
Feeling the Impact with Christie’s Sale
However, the performance continued to roll during Christie’s South Asian auction held in New York towards end March.
Popular artists such as M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, B. Prabha, Jamini Roy, F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, were well featured in the 120 lots auction, and by and large maintained their grip over Indian Modern Art.
We were interested to see newer artists also gaining ground, special note for Sheila Makhijani, a contemporary artist, whose work fetched almost 2.5 times its higher estimate. We found this noteworthy since her works are neither ‘typical Indian imagery’, nor seeped in any traditional motifs, largely depicting urban abstract forms.
Achieving approximately USD 9.5 million for their 120 lots in action, Christie’s sale represented a wider spectrum of South Asian art, a nod to gaining breadth of Indian art.
Rounding-Off with AstaGuru
Closing the month was AstaGuru’s 199-lot sale of South Asian art in Mumbai, the largest (by lot size) for the spring season! It included artists from early 19th century as well as few contemporary artists. The sale prices of the total auction at Rs 24+cr (approx. USD 3 mn) was one-third as compared to other auctions.
Reading Between the Lines with ArtKyk
Some of the artworks that went at a steal were Rajendra Dhawan’s 29 x 35 inches canvas at Rs 3.37lakhs, and two iconic Paritosh Sen’s one a work on paper from his Ramkrishna series at just Rs 3.13lakhs, and a powerful canvas on street dogs for Rs 5.18 lakhs. A note to buyers to that it is important to look for works that are significant but may not be currently trendy, when buying in an auction.
We spotted Shobha Broota in AstaGuru (early canvas), and her mature work Christies, both of which fared well. So, keeping our eye for this artist as her market gains ground!
Another artist whose works made a rare appearance was sketches on paper by Devi Prasad Roy Chowdhury (Christies). Devi Prasad was the doyen of Indian sculpture, who made the landmark Gyrah Murti sculpture in Delhi. Unfortunately, though the results were not as inspiring, but it is an opportunity for buyers.
Sculptures remained underrepresented across auctions, but it was a joy to see K G Subramanyan’s animal wood miniatures, which he made for the Kala Mela at the Faculty of Fine Arts M.S. University, Vadodra.
Works on paper seem to have broken the glass ceiling, for example Bikash Bhattacharya’s ‘Dolls’ from Astaguru fetched Rs 32 lakhs; compare this to a similar sized (25 x 21 inches) Sakti Burman canvas at Rs 28 lakhs.
While we were excited to see that through all auctions, majority of the works exceeded auction house estimates. However, on closer look, we noticed that the estimate pricing seemed modest at best, and not entirely reflective of market performances. In our view, prospective buyers should take a better look at recorded prices of artists they might be interested in, for successful bidding.
Since auction results represent the tertiary art market, the results provide us with an establishment view of the market’s choices. For example, the wider presentation of contemporary artists in the Christie’s auction, the abiding love of traditional material in Pundole’s auctions, and the heavy hitters in the Saffron Art auction.
These are all positive signals. What remains to the be seen is how wide and deep this footprint would be in the coming few years. The market appears to have picked up over the last few years, and we wait with baited breadth to see its speed and direction over the coming ones, and whether it will encompass even a wider array of artists and price points!
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