Indian art prices go through the roof
MUMBAI, December 10, 2005
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Times of India
In one more upward bound, the contemporary Indian art notched
record sales of Rs 55 crore at a Saffronart online auction which
concluded on Thursday night after three days of frantic bidding
from around the world.
This time, a dramatic painting by Francis Newton Souza was bought
for Rs 6.5 crore by an NRI from the Far East, becoming the second-highest
Indian contemporary painting after Tyeb Mehtas Mahishasura,
which holds the record at Rs 6.9 crore.
At the auction, eleven paintings sold for over a crore each four
Souzas, two Padamsees and two Razas, a Tyeb Mehta, a Husain and
a Ram Kumar.
The star of the show was clearly Francis Newton Souza, that famous
and irascible son of Saligao, Goa, who is probably chuckling with
mirth in heaven or wherever it is dead painters who poke fun at
the religious establishment go.
His massive 6x4 foot work, Lovers, the largest Souza to ever
come up for auction, was painted in 1955, during his most intense
and exploratory period as an artist.
It was displayed at the Zimmerli Museum in Rutgers University
in New Jersey and was part of a famous private collection in the
US.
"Souza was obsessed with church and dogma, and this painting
in some ways is very shocking it has a male figure in a red cardinal
kind of robe with a woman in the garden," says Dinesh Vazirani
of Saffronart.
Souzas Crucifixion, a powerful 1961 painting, sold for
Rs 2.7 crore. Christ and his Passion were among his favourite
themes, and his last work before he died was a Christ.
Souza was buried on Easter Sunday of 2002 at the Sewri Cemetery
in Mumbai. Among the surprises were a small paperwork by Jogen
Choudhury (In Search of a Dream) which sold for Rs 83 lakh and
a tempera by Ganesh Pyne for Rs 76 lakh.
Among the younger artists, paintings by Chittrovanu Mazumdar
and Shibu Natesan sold for Rs 37 lakh each.