ALIVE: EVENING SALE OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART (17 SEPTEMBER 2020)

34 Untitled
Saffronart, Mumbai, 16 February 2017, lot 78
MEERA MUKHERJEE (1923‒1998) Sold for Rs 50.4 lakhs ($76,364)

Untitled (Spinning Yarn)

Bronze
Height: 6.14 in (15.6 cm)
Width: 14.96 in (38 cm)
Depth: 5.62 in (14.3 cm)

Rs 40,00,000 ‒ 60,00,000
$54,055 ‒ 81,085

PROVENANCE
Galerie 88, Kolkata
Private Collection, Chennai
Christie’s, New York, 13 September 2017, lot 454
Private Collection, Mumbai

The following lots 35 ‒ 49 with the symbol are located
outside India and may only be bid upon in USD currency.
For further details, please refer to the Conditions of Sale at

the end of the catalogue.

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN,
SINGAPORE
35

V S GAITONDE (1924‒2001)

Untitled
Signed and dated in Devnagari
(lower left)
1953
Watercolour and ink on paper
board
10.5 x 6.5 in (26.7 x 16.5 cm)
$25,000 ‒ 35,000
Rs 18,50,000 ‒ 25,90,000
PROVENANCE
Saffronart, 30 November ‒ 2
December 2004, lot 33

“Every painting has a seed which germinates in the next painting. A
painting is not limited to one canvas. I go on adding an element and
that’s how it evolves.”  V S GAITONDE

103



“I have always been moved by the sweep, the drama, and
the magnificent changeability of nature.”  JEHANGIR SABAVALA

The universal and timeless art of Jehangir Sabavala has earned him a distinguished place in modern Indian art, among
peers, critics and collectors alike. The art critic S V Vasudev once said: “There are a few artists who in the course of a
generation of the contemporary movement in India, have made an indelible impression on the mind and have also
revealed in their progress the nature of the artistic quest… Today Jehangir Sabavala’s paintings reveal the refinement of
a poetic mind, the abstract sign posts of a philosophical search for values, the painterly technique realized after years of
experience, and, above all, the singular note that keeps alive the wonder in creation.” (Pria Devi, Jehangir Sabavala, New
Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 1984)

Sabavala’s artistic evolution began with his first solo show at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai in 1951, and continued
well into the last decade of his artistic journey. Over his career of more than sixty years, which he likened to a pilgrimage,
Sabavala pushed forward in his quest to find lyricism and serenity in a seemingly irredeemable world. “Painting for me
grows more personalised, more difficult. Movements, styles, the topical moments, all lose out to the attempt to reach
deeper levels of interpretation. Horizons widen and recede, and I see myself as a pilgrim, moving towards unknown vistas”
(Artist quoted in Ranjit Hoskote, The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai: Eminence Designs Pvt.
Ltd., 2005, p. 216)

Painted in 2006 during the last few years of Sabavala’s life, the present lot—with its subtle Cubist forms, style and
imagery—is evocative of his earlier works from the 1970s, which similarly explored the possibilities of water. Drawing
comparison with his Of Cliff and Fall series of 1978, Ranjit Hoskote writes that The Cactus Wave “cites and reprises the

With its subtle Cubist forms and imagery, the present lot is evocative of Sabavala’s works from the 1960s and 1970s.

Of Cliff and Fall III, 1978 The Star that Beckons, 1968
Saffronart, New Delhi, 10 September 2015, lot 16 Saffronart, Mumbai, 13 March 2018, lot 13
Sold for Rs 1.38 crores ($212,308) Sold for Rs 3.84 crores ($600,000)

106

grandeur of the torrents, gorges and rock faces that [he] celebrated throughout the 1970s…,” albeit in a lighter fashion.
According to him, Sabavala was fascinated, since childhood, “…by water at rest and in flow: water as spring, source,
current and cascade, as majestic yet overwhelming swell, and as a measure of abundance... With its combination of light
amethyst and aquamarine, touched with ochre and Naples yellow, ‘The Cactus Wave’ leaves as in some doubt: is this
a sea or a desert , and is that a series of spiky waves cresting up, or are they dunes rising like an undulating sequence of
scimitars?” (Ranjit Hoskote, Ricorso: Jehangir Sabavala, Paintings, 2006 – 2008, Mumbai: Sakshi Art Gallery, 2008)

Sabavala’s works from the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as the present lot, seem to glow from an unidentifiable inner
source of light. According to Hoskote, these paintings “are suffused with a light that emerges from within the canvas: a
light that breaks the surface at the edges of the image, delineating body and topography, earth and flame, rock and sky
as a single flow of faceted forms... Crystalline in structure, these forms interpenetrate... seem to change into one another
before our eyes when we look at them closely.” (The Crucible of Painting, pp. 193, 196)

Through this “crystalline geometry,” as Hoskote terms it, Sabavala transforms the topographical landscape into “prismatic
structures… Even the relatively abstractionist passages in Sabavala’s paintings are carefully modulated through this
crystalline geometry; there is no leeway here for the haphazard gesture or the spontaneous pictorial effusion.” (The
Crucible of Painting, p. 176) With its fluidly intersecting planes of colour and deliberate demarcation of space and painted
surface, the present lot represents the hallmark of Sabavala’s unique and enduring style.

Works painted in the same decade and similar to the present lot in which Sabavala explores the pictorial possibilities of land and sea.

The Casuarina Line I, 2002 The Casuarina Line II, 2002
Saffronart, 16‒17 June 2010, lot 42 Sold at auction in 2015 for Rs 4.8 crores
Sold for Rs 1.68 crores ($374,900) Reproduced from Ranjit Hoskote, The Crucible of Painting: The Art of Jehangir
Sabavala, Mumbai: Eminence Designs Pvt. Ltd., 2005, pp. 188‒189

107

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT
PRIVATE COLLECTION, DUBAI

36

JEHANGIR SABAVALA (1922‒2011)

The Cactus Wave

Signed and dated ‘Sabavala ‘06’ (lower left)
2006
Oil on canvas
50 x 50 in (127 x 127 cm)

$300,000 ‒ 400,000
Rs 2,22,00,000 ‒ 2,96,00,000

PROVENANCE
Acquired from Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai

EXHIBITED
Jehangir Sabavala, New York: Aicon Gallery,
15 January ‒ 7 February 2009
Remembering Jehangir Sabavala, Mumbai: Sakshi Gallery,
1 ‒ 9 September 2011

PUBLISHED
Ranjit Hoskote ed., Ricorso: Jehangir Sabavala: Paintings,
2006‒2008, Mumbai: Sakshi Gallery; London and New York:
Aicon Gallery, 2008, p. 39 (illustrated)

Image courtesy of Shirin Sabavala The present lot published in Ranjit Hoskote, Ricorso: Jehangir Sabavala,
108 Paintings, 2006 – 2008, Mumbai: Sakshi Art Gallery, 2008

109

© S H Raza



PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT
PRIVATE COLLECTION, DUBAI
37

S H RAZA (1922‒2016)

Nil Kanth
Signed and dated ‘RAZA ‘02’ (lower centre); signed,
dated and inscribed ‘RAZA/ 2002/ “Nil Kanth”’ and
titled in Devnagari (on the reverse)
2002
Acrylic on canvas
47.25 x 47.25 in (120 x 120 cm)
$250,000 ‒ 350,000
Rs 1,85,00,000 ‒ 2,59,00,000
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
Saffronart, 16‒17 June 2010, lot 40

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Raza began to frequently travel to India, and this prompted him to question the
“Indianness” of his work. The period of travel and self‒reflexivity that followed ushered in a deeper engagement with
forms, colours and philosophies rooted in his home country. The shift from his earlier gestural style to this newfound
geometric vocabulary prompted Raza to claim to have been reborn as an artist. The circle, which has held a place of
reverence in ancient cultures around the world through the ages, began to become a focal point in his art.
Since then, Raza’s paintings have alluded to nature, which would continue to remain an integral part of his work. As
Rudolf von Leyden said, “Nature became to Raza something not to be observed or to be imagined but something to be
experienced in the very act of putting paint on canvas.” (Raza, Mumbai: Vakil and Sons Ltd, 1979). The artist also drew
from Indian philosophical, spiritual and mythical concepts, and turned to his native languages, increasingly using Hindi
and Sanskrit terms as titles for his works. 
The title of the present lot, literally translated as “blue throat,” is one of the names for Shiva, arising from an incident
wherein he consumed an immensely toxic poison from the ocean and held it in his throat, thus saving all life and
creation. Raza represents the churning waters in alternating, concentric spirals of vivid blue and black, spreading from a
central interlocking form that recalls a wave, as well as the opposing yet balancing forces of yin and yang.

112

"By very simple means, I am convinced, one can attain infinity."

 S H RAZA

113





PROPERTY FROM AN EMINENT SOUTH EAST ASIAN COLLECTION Subodh Gupta creates irony and awe by turning
everyday objects used in domestic spaces into
38 works of art. The present lot is a monumental
wave of stacked utensils, in which Gupta plays
SUBODH GUPTA (b.1964) with scale and meaning. Hungry God “...is made
up of a vast number of stainless‒steel kitchen
Hungry God utensils stacked in a mound, at an awe‒inspiring
scale, as a quasi‒religious offering. Gupta likens
2005‒2006 the modern‒day kitchen to a secular temple
Stainless steel and its implements to idols. With this major
Height: 104 in (264.1 cm) work he offers a multitude of tiffin‒pots, and
Width: 196 in (497.4 cm) the food they might produce or carry on a
Depth: 83 in (210.8 cm) daily basis, to satisfy a ‘hungry god’.” (Simon
Maidment, “Subodh Gupta: Everyday Divine,”
$200,000 ‒ 250,000 National Gallery of Victoria, 11 May 2016, online)
Rs 1,48,00,000 ‒ 1,85,00,000
Gupta’s use of stainless steel objects as a
PROVENANCE medium has cultural and historical significance.
Nature Morte, New Delhi The production of stainless steel, as envisioned
Walsh Gallery, Chicago by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, propelled
Private Collection, USA India into an era of economic development.
Saffronart, 13‒14 June 2018, lot 129 “Nehru brought steel under state control and
set up the first public sector steel mills in the
EXHIBITED late 1950s, referring to them as ‘temples of
Hungry God, New Delhi: Gallery Nature Morte, modernity’.” (Maidment, online) With India
1 ‒ 25 February 2006 emerging as the second largest producer
Urban Manners 2: Contemporary Artists from India, of steel in 2017, the metaphor behind
São Paulo: SESC Pompeia, 2010 Gupta’s Hungry God acquires further relevance
Beyond Limits, Derbyshire: Chatsworth House, in its contemporary context.
13 September ‒ 31 October 2010
Subodh Gupta: Everyday Divine, Melbourne:
National Gallery of Victoria, 13 May ‒ 16 November 2016

PUBLISHED
Urban Manners 2: Contemporary Artists from India,
São Paulo: SESC Pompeia, 2010, p. 19 (illustrated)

Present lot on display at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, UK, 2010 and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 2016
116



Nataraj Sharma’s art often explores the relationship between man and machine in today’s industrialised age, where
direct contact between the two is unavoidable. Visually dramatic and overwhelming in both scale and subject matter,
his works allude to the unpredictable yet inevitable confluences of nature, civilisation and industrialisation. His factory
interiors and urbanscapes seem to underscore the reality of such developments, touted as ‘progress,’ distilling them to
their basics, and in doing so, revealing more complex interactions. These works mirror a sensibility and sensitivity that
acknowledges the fast changing contemporary world, but also questions the socio‒economic and political repercussions
of this heady, never‒ending project.

The artist’s fascination with machines began when he moved to Baroda, Gujarat, in 1994 to teach art, and encountered
construction and upheaval in a rapidly gentrifying city. He was interested in the “transgressed and transforming landscape”
and the mechanisms behind it. In his own words: “Objects have a still life, a permanence and a consistency that stands in

118

PROPERTY OF A PROMINENT EAST COAST COLLECTION

39

NATARAJ SHARMA (b.1958)

Studio (Karkhana)

Signed, inscribed and dated ‘Nataraj/ BARODA/ 2004’ (on the reverse)
2004
Oil on canvas pasted on board
71.5 x 107 in (181.6 x 271.8 cm)

$35,000 ‒ 45,000
Rs 25,90,000 ‒ 33,30,000
(Triptych)

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist, 2005
Saffronart, 24‒25 September 2013, lot 37

EXHIBITED
Nataraj Sharma, New York: Bose Pacia, 20 January ‒ 19 February 2005

PUBLISHED
Ranjit Hoskote and Gayatri Sinha, Nataraj Sharma: Stretch, Singapore:
Bodhi Art, 2006 (illustrated)

contrast to the fickleness of human exchange. Look at objects and they look back without blinking...They say: 'Reveal us
and we will reveal you.’”(Grant Watson, “Simulated Realities and Virtual Experience,” Voices of Change: 20 Indian Artists,
Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2010, p. 113)

In the present lot, Sharma depicts a bleak, shadowy interior backlit against a phosphorescent green background, which
he separates into three panels. At the centre of this composition is a seated man surrounded by an array of machines,
ranging from simple, everyday objects such as a ceiling fan, to complex, heavy machinery for industrial use. “The
representation of the human form trapped within structures larger and more powerful than itself takes on a sense
of the monumental in Sharma's many paintings of machinery and factories… Sometimes the artist presents these
machines as contradictory objects which on the one hand adhere to the logic of orderliness and productivity and on
the other to the whimsy and playfulness of artistic fancy.” (Watson, p. 102)

119

40 Paysage, 1961
Saffronart, New Delhi,
AKBAR PADAMSEE (1928‒2020) 10 September 2015, lot 18
Sold for INR 3.84 crores ($590,769)
Untitled
Signed and dated ‘PADAMSEE 63’ (lower left) Akbar Padamsee returned to Bombay from his sojourn in
1963 Paris in the late 1950s, and travelled to New York in 1963
Oil on canvas and 1964 on a John D Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship.
16.25 x 9.5 in (41.1 x 24.2 cm) "Throughout the 1950s and early '60s, Padamsee
$80,000 ‒ 120,000 travelled between the cosmopolitan centres of Paris and
Rs 59,20,000 ‒ 88,80,000 Bombay… Absorbing diverse visual terrains across India
PROVENANCE and Europe, and, beginning in 1963, of North America
Private Collection, USA too, Padamsee began to explore landscape painting as
Saffronart, 6‒7 December 2017, lot 34 a genre in the late 1950s. In spite of (or perhaps because
Acquired from the above of) spending the 1960s transiting among urban hubs
in three continents, imaginative natural landscapes
Image courtesy of Akbar Padamsee became one of Padamsee's central artistic projects
120 during that decade.” (Beth Citron, "Akbar Padamsee's
Artistic ‘Landscape’ of the '60s," Akbar Padamsee: Work
in Language, Mumbai: Marg Publications and Pundole
Art Gallery, 2010, p. 195)

Padamsee’s landscapes from the early ‘60s are
reminiscent of the French countryside, but transcend a
specific location. Depicting closely‒packed houses set
against a vibrant blue sky, the present lot underscores
the artist’s interest in structure, with a colour palette that
foreshadows his later work. According to literary critic
and journalist Sham Lal, "His method is quite contrary
to that of the expressionists who use colour directly to
express the turbulence or violence of their emotions
without subjecting it to any discipline. In Padamsee's
work colour is always subordinate to a structural basis.
The texture of the paintings done in this period is by
no means a superfluous detail; it is part of the meaning
of the picture." ("Akbar Padamsee," Padamsee: Sadanga
Series on Modern and Contemporary Indian Art, Mumbai:
Vakils Publications, p. 8)

121

PROPERTY OF A LADY, SINGAPORE
41

F N SOUZA (1924‒2002)

Landscape with Red Houses
Signed and dated ‘Souza 53’ (faintly visible, upper
left); inscribed and dated ‘F.N. SOUZA/ LANDSCAPE
WITH RED HOUSES/ 1953’ (on the reverse)
1953
Oil on board
24.75 x 19.75 in (63 x 50 cm)
$125,000 ‒ 150,000
Rs 92,50,000 ‒ 1,11,00,000
PROVENANCE
Christie’s, Hong Kong, 27 April 2003, lot 75
Saffronart, 10‒11 June 2009, lot 42

F N Souza, 1987
StoryLTD.com, 18‒19 July 2017, lot 32 (i)

"Beauty is Nature's creation; colours are a wonder;
Light, which contains colours, is a miracle..."  F N SOUZA

123

Jagdish Swaminath’s art was rooted in the quest for a unique vocabulary for modern art that looked inward rather than
to the West. To do so, he dedicated himself to the study of Pahari miniatures and ancient totemic symbols that were
symbolic of this purity of vision, and represented an attempt to bridge India’s aesthetic past with the present.
The most well‒regarded in his oeuvre is the famous ‘Bird, Mountain, Tree’ series where he explored the three titular motifs
in varying combinations for over twenty years, producing some of his finest works of art. Works from this series, such
as the present lot, were a vehicle for the artist to interrogate concepts of truth and perception, which he believed could
only be discovered through pure, meditative representations of nature. For Swaminathan—a deeply spiritual artist—
these canvases were not literal depictions of birds, mountains, and trees, but visual guides to a tranquil existence beyond
the struggles of our quotidian lives. In his own words, “…painting was never meant to represent reality in the naturalistic,
objective sense, it was the cogent and poetic rendering of an ideal truth in terms of two‒dimensional space…" (Artist
quoted in The Margi and the Desi: Between Tradition and Modernity, New Delhi: Gallery Espace, 2004)
The unique flexibility between form and colour opens up Swaminathan’s paintings for multiple interpretations, in which
“one confronts a curious dualism. There is assertion, and also submission. There is defiance, and also prayer....there is a
homage to the quiet, almost placid splendour of timelessness, of contained animation.” (Suren Navlakha, Exhibition of
Paintings by J Swaminathan, New Delhi: Dhoomimal Gallery, 1979) This dualism can be seen in the geometric, split‒
toned staircase in the present lot—an object Swaminathan chooses instead of the customary tree motif. Set against
a vibrant red, Swaminathan juxtaposes the bold, flat colours of the staircase and birds with mystical imagery of the
mountain, producing an effect that is, at once, surreal and introspective.

Jagdish Swaminathan
© Jyoti Bhatt

124

42 Untitled, 1986
Saffronart, Mumbai, 26 March 2019, lot 24
JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN (1928‒1994) Sold for Rs 80.5 lakhs ($118,382)

Untitled

Signed and dated in Devnagari (on the reverse)
1982
Oil on canvas
31.75 x 41.25 in (80.5 x 105 cm)

$70,000 ‒ 90,000
Rs 51,80,000 ‒ 66,60,000

The work includes a Certificate of Authenticity from the
J Swaminathan Foundation, signed by the artist’s son S Kalidas

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist, circa 1980s
Thence by descent
Private Collection, New York

125

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT WEST COAST COLLECTION Woman Having Her Hair Combed, 1956

43 Krishen Khanna: A Retrospective, presented by
Saffronart at New Delhi: Lalit Kala Akademi, 23 January
KRISHEN KHANNA (b.1925) ‒ 5 February 2010

Untitled

Signed and dated ‘KKhanna 55’ (lower left)
1955
Oil on canvas
34 x 25.5 in (86.4 x 65 cm)

$20,000 ‒ 25,000
Rs 14,80,000 ‒ 18,50,000

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist while posted at the US Embassy
in Delhi, circa 1950s
Private Collection, Washington DC
Acquired from the above

126

44

RAM KUMAR (1924‒2018)

Untitled
Signed and dated ‘Ram Kumar 04’ (on the reverse)
2004
Acrylic on canvas
32.5 x 36.5 in (82.6 x 92.7 cm)
$50,000 ‒ 60,000
Rs 37,00,000 ‒ 44,40,000
PROVENANCE
Saffronart, 6‒8 December 2005, lot 39
Saffronart, 9‒10 December 2009, lot 83
Acquired from the above

127



“We must slow down our intellectual functions in order to allow the
inner light to open out. One then reaches a kind of semi‒conscious
state where reasoning becomes useless, shapes becoming as if they
were dictated by heaven. I am convinced that the best paintings are
produced while in that kind of state.”  S H RAZA

The bindu – which Raza first introduced into his paintings in the 1950s as a black sun looming in the background of a
landscape – is a metaphor for the origin of all life in Indian philosophy, from which "a whole series of different climates
of thought can be created," in addition to representing concepts like unity, completeness and infinity. (Geeti Sen, Bindu:
Space and Time in Raza’s Vision, New Delhi: Media Transasia Ltd, p. 12) The present lot belongs to a decade in which
the artist continued to explore geometric forms and the motif of the bindu in his paintings. Through the repetition of
shapes, forms and colours, Raza believed that "you gain energy and intensity, as is gained through the japmala, or the
repetition of a word or a syllable until you achieve a state of elevated consciousness." (Artist quoted in Sen, p. 128) 
Although Raza's studies of ancient concepts are clearly evident in his works of this period, he sought to be inspired rather
than led by them, developing an interpretation that was uniquely his own. "I have done my utmost to invent my own
perception of shapes and colours, as well as the geometry governing them. I have been through a long period of research
and assimilation before finding my own vision... Painting does not come from the intellect, it comes from the deepest
layers of life and from an elevation in intuitive perception." (Artist quoted in S H Raza and Olivier Germain‒Thomas,
Mandalas: Sayed Haider Raza, Paris: Éditions Albin Michel, 2004, p. 20) 
In the present lot, the artist replaces vivid primary colours with softer, almost monochromatic pastel hues. "He was
moving towards the essentials: shorn of all redundant matter, pure and transparent... Raza had been realising during his
various visits to India that colours have both emotive content and spiritual resonances." (Ashok Vajpeyi, A Life in Art:
Raza, New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2007, p. 111) Framed within a square, Raza’s masterful understanding of forms and
colours results in a painting that alludes to notions of serenity, positivity and light. 

129

45

S H RAZA (1922‒2016)

Shanti Bindu
Signed and dated ‘RAZA ‒ 2000’ (lower right); signed,
inscribed, dated ‘RAZA/ “SHANTI ‒ BINDU”/ 2000’ and
titled in Devnagari (on the reverse)
2000
Acrylic on canvas
47.25 x 47.25 in (120 x 120 cm)
$100,000 ‒ 150,000
Rs 74,00,000 ‒ 1,11,00,000
PROVENANCE
Pundole’s, Mumbai, 22 November 2018, lot 69
Acquired from the above
EXHIBITED
Modern Indian Art, presented by Saffronart and Pundole Art
Gallery at New York: Metropolitan Pavilion, 12 ‒ 16 May 2001
Aspects of Modern Indian Paintings, presented by Saffronart and
Pundole Art Gallery at New York: Metropolitan Pavilion, 27
September ‒ 1 October 2002
PUBLISHED
Modern Indian Art, Saffronart, 2001 (illustrated)
Aspects of Modern Indian Paintings, Saffronart, 2002 (illustrated)

130

131

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED NEW YORK COLLECTOR
46

M F HUSAIN (1913‒2011)

Untitled
Signed and dated ‘Husain 22 ‘III’ 001’ (upper centre)
2001
Oil on canvas
39 x 29 in (99 x 73.5 cm)
$65,000 ‒ 85,000
Rs 48,10,000 ‒ 62,90,000
PROVENANCE
Saffronart, 13‒16 May 2002, lot 6

“I’m merely trying to collate my experience of 60 years through the
paintings. Through men, women, plants and birds...I’m not narrating
any story...I’m not concerned with certain types here; instead I’m
aspiring to convey my vision to speak.”  M F HUSAIN

132

133

A versatile and innovative sculptor, Sankho Chaudhuri is considered one of the masters of modern Indian sculpture,
and was adept in the use of various mediums including wood, stone, and bronze. A student of Ramkinkar Baij, his work
is significant in its emancipation from the academic style prevalent during the British Raj, instead favouring new styles
and media. Chaudhuri’s elegant, abstract sculptures comprise smooth curves and elongated lines, rendering them an
evocative quality. Artist and art critic Pran Nath Mago referred to these works as “space transformations... His forms
whether casted in metal or worked in sheet‒metal, enveloping space, express the essential spirit of things. They are
volume creations – from material volume to virtual volume – and circumscribed mass imbued with a remarkable
sense of rhythm. The negative volumes produced by openings perceived visually, although bodiless, are an outstanding
plastic element in Sankho’s works.” (“Some Consequential Contemporary Artists of India,” Contemporary Art in India:
A Perspective, New Delhi: National Book Trust, 2001, p. 182)

Sankho Chaudhuri
© Jyoti Bhatt

Documents of purchase and shipment, marking the journey of the present lot from New Delhi to London

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT
WEST COAST COLLECTION
47

SANKHO
CHAUDHURI (1916‒2006)

Untitled (Mother and Child)
Foundry stamp ‘Cire Valsuani
Perdue’ (on the base)
Painted bronze
Height: 18.5 in (47 cm)
Width: 7.75 in (20 cm)
Depth: 9 in (23 cm)
$15,000 ‒ 20,000
Rs 11,10,000 ‒ 14,80,000
PROVENANCE
Formerly from the Collection of
Edward M Korry, an American
diplomat and former US
Ambassador to Ethiopia and Chile,
who purchased the present lot at
the International Cultural Centre in
New Delhi, 1958.

The present lot bearing the foundry stamp

48

NATVAR BHAVSAR (b.1934)

Bhawar
Inscribed and dated ‘NATVAR BHAVSAR/ BHAWAR/
1981’ (on the reverse)
1981
Dry pigments with oil and acrylic on canvas
81.5 x 68.5 in (207 x 174 cm)
$70,000 ‒ 90,000
Rs 51,80,000 ‒ 66,60,000
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, New York

“Without trying to use it as a vehicle to document something, colour
has a very emotional trait, directing us to enjoy the non‒peripheral.
In sound, there is no periphery, and similarly, a drop of colour does
not have a periphery either, in terms of the visual experience.”

 NATVAR BHAVSAR

136

137

49

ZARINA HASHMI (1937‒2020)

Untitled

Signed and dated ‘Zarina 07’ (lower right)
2007
Strips of woodcut prints and computer generated text
13.5 x 13 in (34.3 x 33 cm)
$10,000 ‒ 15,000
Rs 7,40,000 ‒ 11,10,000
This is a double-sided unique work

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
Private Collection, Dubai

138

“Black for me is ink. And creating for me is about understanding
the heart of darkness in a world which is black and white."

 ZARINA

139

The following lots 50 ‒ 75 are located in India and may only
be bid upon in INR currency. For further details, please refer

to the Conditions of Sale at the end of the catalogue.

50

JAMINI ROY (1887‒1972)

Untitled (Elephant)

Signed in Bengali (lower right)
Tempera on cardboard
9.5 x 11.25 in (24 x 28.5 cm)

Rs 4,00,000 ‒ 6,00,000
$5,410 ‒ 8,110

NON‒EXPORTABLE NATIONAL ART TREASURE

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist by J S Turner, India, circa
1947‒1958. Turner served as a professor and the head of the
Department of English, University of Dhaka from 1954‒1958.
Thence by descent
Private Collection, UK
Private Collection, New Delhi

141

51 In his search for an artistic expression, Jamini Roy delved
into his roots, often incorporating elements from
JAMINI ROY (1887‒1972) traditional art forms such as Kalighat patuas, Bengali
scrolls and Bankura terracotta in his works. Composed
Untitled with flat, earthy colours, his works feature simple
Signed in Bengali (lower right) figurative forms and decisive lines, as seen in lots 1, 50
Tempera on cardboard and 51. Manasij Majumdar writes that Roy “…often
11 x 17.25 in (27.7 x 44 cm) preferred to make images with bare minimal content and
Rs 5,00,000 ‒ 7,00,000 a rich formalist handling. Even when he treated a motif
$6,760 ‒ 9,460 comprising two or more figures, he always eschewed
NON‒EXPORTABLE NATIONAL ART TREASURE all inessential representational details to move towards
PROVENANCE extreme simplification of the basic form, defined by
Sotheby’s, New York, 16 September 2010, lot 2 smooth easy curved brush strokes most often in black or
Private Collection, New Delhi dark Indian red... What strikes the viewer instantly is not
any theme as such but forms and figures with a striking
142 finesse of lineal elegance.” (Manasij Majumdar, “Jamini
Roy: Modernism’s Nationalist Face,” Jamini Roy: National
Art Treasure, Kolkata: Purba, 2015, p. 55)

52

RAM KUMAR (1924‒2018)

Untitled
Signed and dated 'Ram Kumar/ 1967' (on the reverse)
1967
Acrylic on paper pasted on mountboard
22 x 28 in (56.1 x 71.1 cm)
Rs 6,00,000 ‒ 8,00,000
$8,110 ‒ 10,815
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
An Important Private Collection, New Delhi
PUBLISHED
Meera Menezes, Ram Kumar: Traversing the Landscapes of
the Mind, Mumbai: Saffronart, 2016, p. 65 (illustrated)

143

144

PROPERTY OF A LADY, MUMBAI

53

M F HUSAIN (1913‒2011)

Untitled

Signed twice in Devnagari (upper left)
Oil on canvas pasted on board
15.25 x 15.25 in (39 x 39 cm)

Rs 12,00,000 ‒ 15,00,000
$16,220 ‒ 20,275

PROVENANCE
Formerly from The Pittie Collection, Hyderabad

145



The present lot is a set of forty‒two unframed postcards, 28 of which were illustrations—or
“sketches”—that were originally part of Husain’s Letters, a rare, illustrated chapbook of poems by the
artist, published by Ayaz S Peerbhoy in 1969. A pioneering businessman in the advertising world,
Peerbhoy was also Husain’s first biographer, as well as an early patron of his art who introduced the
young artist to new collectors.

These postcards were included as companion pieces to Husain’s writing. In the introduction to
the book—which will accompany the present lot—Peerbhoy poetically writes that they were
“addressed to a real person out of a need for expression. There appears to be no logical relationship
between the person and the letter, between the letter and the sketch, and yet each letter is born
out of a sense of pathos surging towards nothingness. The fantasy may be born out of agony or
hope. In an artist the two extremes live simultaneously.”

148

54 PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
M F HUSAIN (1913‒2011) The Ayaz S Peerbhoy Collection, Bangalore
Thence by descent
A Collection of Forty‒Two Works

20 works signed and dated; 19 works
dated
1959 ‒ 1962
Mixed media on postcard
3.5 x 5.5 in (9 x 14 cm) (each)

Rs 40,00,000 ‒ 50,00,000
$54,055 ‒ 67,570

This work is a set of forty‒two unframed
postcards. A rare book of poems
published by Ayaz S Peerbhoy in 1969 is
also included with the lot.

(Set of forty‒two)

149

150