Spring Auctions 2021

37

JAGDISH SWAMINATHAN (1928‒1994)

Journey

Circa 1980s
Oil on canvas
23.25 x 35.25 in (59 x 89.5 cm)

Rs 50,00,000 ‒ 70,00,000
$69,445 ‒ 97,225

PROVENANCE
Kumar Gallery, New Delhi

EXHIBITED
Modern Indian Paintings: One Hundred Years ‒ Part I, New
Delhi: Kumar Gallery, 14 October ‒ 7 November 1996
Celebration 2016: Kumar Gallery, Sixty Years (1955 ‒ 2015),
New Delhi: Kumar Gallery, 25 January ‒ 5 February 2016

PUBLISHED
Celebration 2016: Kumar Gallery, Sixty Years (1955 ‒ 2015),
New Delhi: Kumar Gallery, 2016 (illustrated)

99

Satish Gujral
© Jyoti Bhatt

100

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MUMBAI

38

SATISH GUJRAL (1925‒2020)

Untitled

Signed in Devnagari (upper left)
Mixed media on canvas
35.25 x 35.25 in (89.5 x 89.5 cm)

Rs 15,00,000 ‒ 20,00,000
$20,835 ‒ 27,780

101

39 Sakti Burman’s surrealist, vibrant paintings draw from a
wide variety of sources, including the artist’s own dreams
SAKTI BURMAN (b.1935) and memories, the French Impressionists, as well as the
poetry of Rabindranath Tagore and Charles Baudelaire.
Le Miroir du Temps (Mirror of Time) Burman travelled to Italy in 1958, and his encounter with
the frescoes of Giotto, Piero de la Francesca and Simone
Signed ‘SAKTi Burman’ (lower right) Martini inspired him to assimilate their monumentality
Circa 1977‒1983 and textures in his works. His defining oeuvre owes largely
Oil on canvas to his technique of marbling, seen in the present lot,
39 x 31.5 in (99 x 80.3 cm) which he arrived at after years of experimentation. Here,
he places a dominant female figure, possibly drawing from
Rs 35,00,000 ‒ 45,00,000 16th century European artistic traditions, into frames that
$48,615 ‒ 62,500 imply structure. “The impact is not much unlike a surrealist
inwardness ensured by a mechanism of aesthetic ordering
PROVENANCE of a topsy‒turvy pictorial world... there are often clearly
Private French Collection marked areas of smooth and textured passages of paint,
Private Collection, New Delhi played off one against the other, as a chequered colour
Saffronart, Mumbai, 16 February 2017, lot 32 groundwork for the image to convey a pure imaginative
experience of strong visual sensation.” (Manasij Majumder,
PUBLISHED Sakti Burman: Dreamer on the Ark, Bombay: Pundole Art
B N Goswamy, Kishore Singh, Mrinal Ghosh eds., Gallery, 2001, pp. 128‒129)
Sakti Burman: The Wonder of it All, Mumbai: Pundole
Art Gallery; Chennai: Apparao Art Galleries, 2012,
p. 18 (illustrated)
Sakti Burman, Paris: Imprimerie de Blayac,
1984 (illustrated)

Sakti Burman
Wikimedia Commons

102

"Art, for me, was always about trying to express some kind
of reality mixed with what is unreal, a dreamlike sequence.
The events you see are a result of juxtapositions within my
subconscious, my cultural fabric, and my reality." – SAKTI BURMAN

103

The vibrant landscape seen in the present lot was painted almost a decade after
S H Raza moved to France, and represents a period when the artist's style was
shifting towards the gestural. Influenced by the abstract or non‒figurative artistic
expression gaining popularity in France at the time, Raza’s paintings began to
consist “solely of multicoloured fireworks, devoid of any geometrical organisation
and always based on themes related to Nature and its elements.” Over the next
few years, “the importance of bhava emerged, a profound sentiment guiding the
forms and investing the entire canvas.” (Michael Imbert, Raza: An Introduction to
his Painting, Noida: Rainbow Publishers, 2003, p. 39)
Raza sailed for France in 1950, and thus began a journey and adventure that was
to influence his practice for decades. In 1951, he began studying at the Ecole
Nationale des Beaux‒Arts in Paris on a French government scholarship. The first
few years in France, though difficult, were formative. “He came in contact for the
first time with a world in which art was taken entirely seriously and definitely
formed part of the life which surrounded it.” (Rudolf von Leyden, Raza, Bombay:
Sadanga Publications, 1959, p. 4)

S H Raza
Image courtesy of the artist

104

“The French landscape is extraordinary: the villages seem
situated so beautifully in the context of nature.” – S H RAZA

105

40

S H RAZA (1922‒2016)

Untitled
Signed and dated 'RAZA '59' (lower right); inscribed
and dated 'RAZA/ 1959/ IND 236'59' (on the reverse)
1959
Gouache and ink on paper
28.25 x 18 in (71.9 x 45.7 cm)
Rs 65,00,000 ‒ 85,00,000
$90,280 ‒ 118,060

PROVENANCE
Galerie Lara Vincy, Paris
The Collection of John Levy, London
Oxford Gallery, Oxford
Christie's South Kensington, 30 July 1987, lot 159

Village En Provence, 1957
Saffronart, New Delhi, 20 September 2018, lot 38
Sold for Rs 4.8 crores ($671,329)

This was a period of exploration for Raza, who travelled across France, as well as to Italy and Spain. “Landscapes,
people ‒ other artists thrilled him as much as the works of art of many ages and nations that he met face to face
for the first time.” (Von Leyden, p. 18) This exposure combined with his formal education led him to understand
and appreciate Renaissance and European art, and the use of light, colour and structure, which in turn influenced
his work at the time. His unique expression led to his art being featured in solo and group exhibitions around
the country, and he gained the attention of many important critics including Jacques Lassaigne, the Director of
the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris. In 1955, Galerie Lara Vincy offered Raza a contract to acquire his
paintings against a monthly payment; and in 1956, he became the first non‒French artist to win the renowned Prix
de la Critique award, gaining widespread recognition.

During this period, the French landscape was a recurring theme in his work (as similarly seen in lot 9). “So much
of exposure to a new and different visual culture could have easily caused a ‘turbulent confusion.’ However,
instead Raza was able to attain a degree of order and a new kind of landscape started dominating his work...
well‒composed, painstakingly constructed, colours used very poetically and evoked a unique mood of their
own. Perhaps the style developed in Bombay was getting refined and expanded in Paris... creating some new and
surprising combinations.” (Ashok Vajpeyi ed., A Life in Art: S H Raza, New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2007, p. 64)

106

107

The following lots 41 ‒ 50 with the symbol are located
outside India and may only be bid upon in USD currency.
For further details, please refer to the Conditions for Sale at

the end of the catalogue.

108

109

110

S H Raza's work underwent a significant transition in the 1970s, when the present lot was painted. So radical
was this shift that the artist once said it was only at this point that he was born as a painter. Raza's aesthetic
style began to depart from the precise, structured Cubist forms of the previous Paris years to a fluid, gestural
style, underscored by a deeper, more contrasting palette. He was simultaneously influenced by the Abstract
Expressionism of American artists – whose work he came across while teaching in Berkeley in 1962, as well
as in Paris – and was increasingly drawn towards exploring his Indian roots. 

During the 1970s, Raza returned to India several times, travelling to his native village – which would inspire
the bindu motif in later works – as well as other less familiar parts of the country, including Rajasthan, the
focus of the present lot. These visits to places new and old ushered in a phase that drew from the emotional
content of his journeys. “Raza was getting himself away from the need to paint what he saw, he was drawn
more to paint what he recalled... It was not romantic nostalgia but Raza was torn between two worlds: the
tumultuous present, the tranquil past. Beauty and fear coming together again as in the beginning of his life.”
(Ashok Vajpeyi ed., A Life in Art: S H Raza, New Delhi: Art Alive Gallery, 2007, p. 80)

In the present lot, Raza employs a palette of red, green and black, evoking the warm colours of Rajasthan, and encloses them within a broad border in
a style reminiscent of Jain and Rajput paintings. By doing so, Raza captures the essence of the place gesturally, as well as thematically.

Maharana Jagat Singh II with Ladies and Deer at a Folio from Gita Govinda: Krishna Awaits Radha, Mewar,
Lake, Mewar, circa 1740 circa 1720

Ragini Basant of Raga Sri, Provincial
Mughal/Bikaner, circa 1660

111

Painted in 1976, the present lot is a rare representation of the Rajasthani capital city of Jaipur, and has an
important place in the artist's oeuvre. It demonstrates the style that Raza began to adopt at this time,
emphasising emotion rather than representation. In his choice of medium, too, he switched from oil
to the more versatile acrylic. Raza’s canvases from this period were emotional essays, full of colour and
vibrant movement that recalled the passion and warmth of India's tropical climate. "Inevitably, freedom
is accompanied by remembrance, and for Raza this brought home the hot, burning colours of miniatures
from Mewar and Malwa, the searing sensations of his own land. Even as the acrylic medium lends the
painting a fluid vibrance, Raza's tempestuous gestures, the tongues of flame in paintings like Rajasthan, will
be immortalised." (Yashodara Dalmia, "Journeys with the Black Sun," The Making of Modern Indian Art: The
Progressives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 154‒155) 

In Jaipur, Raza employs a palette of red, green and black, which evoke the warm colours of the Rajasthani
landscape, and encloses them with a border – a style reminiscent of Jain and Rajput miniature paintings,
which were a major source of inspiration for him. According to Geeti Sen, the treatment hints at "figures
and the interiors of palaces which you find in Rajput narratives." (Bindu: Space and Time in Raza’s Vision,
New Delhi: Media Transasia Ltd., 1997, pp. 102‒103) By doing so, Raza captures the essence of the place
gesturally, as well as thematically. "Rajasthan becomes a metaphor for the colours of India... Rajasthan is the
mapping out of a metaphorical space in the mind... The image becomes thus enshrined as an icon, as sacred
geography." (Sen, p. 98)

La Terre, 1972
Saffronart, New Delhi,
21 September 2017, lot 8

Rajasthan IV, 1961 Oasis, 1975 Untitled, 1975
Saffronart, Mumbai, 13 Saffronart, Mumbai, S H Raza: A Retrospective,
March 2018, lot 26 12 February 2015, lot 35 New York: Saffronart,
21 September ‒ 31 October 2007

112

113

The present lot also contains an early version of the bindu, a motif that is now
synonymous with Raza’s art. The bindu emerged as a result of Raza’s concern
with “pure plastic order” combined with his preoccupation with nature. “Both
have converged into a single point and became inseparable; the point, the
bindu, symbolises the seed, bearing the potential of all life, in a sense. It is also
visible form containing all the essential requisites of line, tone, colour, texture
and space. The black space is charged with latent forces aspiring for fulfilment.”
(Artist quoted in Sen, p. 134) This painting represents a significant milestone in
Raza’s journey of self‒discovery, as well as in his artistic path towards becoming
one of India’s best known Modernists.

114

S H Raza
Image courtesy of the artist

115

41 Jodhpur, 1976
Saffronart, 8 December 2020, Lot 28
S H RAZA (1922‒2016)

Jaipur

Signed and dated ‘RAZA ‘76’ (lower centre);
signed, dated and inscribed ‘Raza/ 1976/ “JAIPUR”’
and titled in Devnagari (on the reverse)
1976
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 48 in ( 122 x 122 cm )

$800,000 ‒ 1,000,000
Rs 5,76,00,000 ‒ 7,20,00,000

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
Property from the Collection of Kurt Erhart
Saffronart, 27‒28 March 2019, lot 30 a)

PUBLISHED
Olivier Germain‒Thomas, S H Raza: Mandalas, Paris:
Editions Albin Michel, 2004, p. 34 (illustrated)
Ashok Vajpeyi ed., A Life in Art: S H Raza, New Delhi:
Art Alive Gallery, 2007, pp. 124‒125 (illustrated)
Alain Bonfand ed., Raza, Paris: Editions de la Difference,
2008, p. 97 (illustrated)
S H Raza: Punaraagman, New Delhi: Vadehra Art
Gallery, 2011, p. 52 (illustrated)

"Away from India, I am constantly concerned with all that is
happening at home. I am keen to reach the sources that have
nourished me as a child, the ideals and concepts that have
grown in my mind during the years, with greater awareness and
meaning." – S H RAZA

116

117

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT MIDDLE EAST COLLECTION
42

M F HUSAIN (1913‒2011)

The Cupid
Signed 'Husain' (upper left)
Circa late 1980s
Acrylic on canvas board
30 x 20 in (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
$70,000 ‒ 90,000
Rs 50,40,000 ‒ 64,80,000
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
Private Collection, UAE
Acquired from the above

118

119

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT MIDDLE EAST COLLECTION
43

M F HUSAIN (1913‒2011)

It has to be an Italian invention of Vespa scooters to make lovers embrace each other
Signed 'Husain' (upper right)
Circa late 1980s
Acrylic on canvas board
30 x 20 in (76.2 x 50.8 cm)
$70,000 ‒ 90,000
Rs 50,40,000 ‒ 64,80,000
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist
Private Collection, UAE
Acquired from the above

"[Husain] delivers the common man from the ordinariness of his
existence to the international arena." – YASHODHARA DALMIA

120

121

“Lost is the passage of sound 
In my jungle. 
Today the burnt bamboos 
Have scratched 
The heart of silent sky, 
And greens sucked 
In elephant jugs.”

– M F HUSAIN

122

123

Animals recur frequently as motifs in M F Husain’s works,
possessing graceful, energetic forms. Depictions of elephants,
tigers and horses, which are revered in Indian mythology,
reference various qualities such as strength, energy,
magnificence, power and fertility in their myriad postures and
moods. “When we look at these creatures we must remember
that the animal is not the subject of Husain’s painting; it is
the demonic principle that he depicts which is neither good
nor bad. The... horses and elephants have become symbols
of power and pursuit, or of mysterious encounters.” (Richard
Bartholomew in Rati Bartholomew, Pablo Bartholomew,
Carmen Kagal and Rosalyn D’Mello eds., Richard Bartholomew:
The Art Critic, New Delhi: BART, p. 153)

Husain’s travels deeply impacted his works of the 1960s,
whether it was his first experimental film Through the Eyes of
a Painter – a journey through the ancient towns of Rajasthan,
which won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin
Film Festival in 1967 – or the paintings he created following
his visits to Kerala and Iraq. In the present lot, the artist
heightens the emotion and frenzy of the scene using deliberate
brushstrokes and bold colours. Husain was a colourist who
often devised unique colour schemes based on the themes he
dealt with – here, he uses various shades of brown and earth
tones to depict the animals, surrounded by a deep green which
situates the scene within a forest, such that “the dramatic is
transmuted and becomes symbolic as each image is separated
from its life‒context, and unsupported by time and history,
is given the freedom of an aesthetic environment.” (Richard
Bartholomew and Shiv S Kapur, Husain, New York: Harry N
Abrams, Inc., 1971, p. 20)

Untitled
Saffronart, Mumbai, 15 February 2014, lot 15

M F12H4usain
© Jyoti Bhatt

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW YORK

44

M F HUSAIN (1913‒2011)

Untitled

Signed in Devnagari (upper left) PROVENANCE
Circa 1960s Private Collection, Zürich
Oil on board Private Collection, London
23.5 x 35.5 in (59.7 x 90.2 cm) Private Collection, New Delhi
Saffronart, 3‒4 December 2014, lot 24
$150,000 ‒ 200,000
Rs 1,08,00,000 ‒ 1,44,00,000

Works on paper by M F Husain featuring a similar theme as the present lot.

Untitled, 1969 Untitled Untitled Untitled, 1992
Saffronart, Saffronart, 12‒13 December 2011, lot 60 Saffronart,15‒16 June 2011, StoryLTD, 11 August 2020, lot 27
3‒4 December 2014, lot 23 lot 41

125

F N Souza, 1973 The present lot is part of a
StoryLTD.com, 18‒19 July 2017, lot 32 (l) series of ‘black on black’ works
that Souza executed in the
126 mid‒1960s, painted exclusively in
the thick black impasto usually
reserved for his bold lines. A
radical, but brief departure from
his oeuvre at the time, this series
represents the artist’s technical
brilliance as a draughtsman, as
well as his constant desire to push
the boundaries of his practice. In
these paintings, “The substance
is black, not the smooth black
of pure sensation but a very
palpable black, its solidity created
by thick brush strokes in different
directions and by a considerable
range of tones according to the
paint's direction in relation to
the light.” (Dennis Duerden, “F N
Souza,” Arts Review, London, 14
May 1966, p. 215)

It is likely that in challenging
traditional notions of colour and
painting, Souza's ‘black on black’
paintings were influenced by the
Pinturas Negras series of Spanish
artist Francisco de Goya, whose
work he encountered at the
National Gallery in London and
admired greatly, and the Blue
period paintings of Pablo Picasso,
an artist to whom he was often
compared. This series perhaps
also drew from the experimental
monochromatic paintings of
conceptual artist Yves Klein
— who was represented by
some of the same galleries as
Souza in London and Paris —
and his exhibition Propositions
Monochromes (1957) and Le
Vide (1958). “You have to admire

“Black is the most mysterious of all colours. Renoir found it
impossible and said a spot of black was like a hole in the painting.
I cannot agree: colour is now disturbing in a bad way.”

— F N SOUZA, 1966

127

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED Souza’s courage. He comes from India into a post war
PRIVATE COLLECTION, USA Britain and paints black on black. To paint without
45 colour: was he brave or crazy a genius or a fool? Or
both? Souza was like a tightrope walker teetering
F N SOUZA (1924‒2002) between madness and inspiration. The Black on
Blacks represent the moment when you take your
Portrait of a Girl breath and wonder when the man will plunge.
Signed and dated 'Souza 65' (centre left) This work is not for the faint of heart. There is no
1965 safety net. It's scary stuff.” (Kito de Boer quoted in
Oil on board Zehra Jumabhoy, F N Souza: Black on Black, London:
41.75 x 31.5 in (106 x 80 cm) Grosvenor Gallery, 2013, p. 37)
$80,000 ‒ 120,000
Rs 57,60,000 ‒ 86,40,000 In addition, Souza used a range of subtle, yet
PROVENANCE discernible colours underneath the overt black one,
Acquired directly from the artist, circa 1980s such as the dark maroon undertones seen in the
Christie's, London, 21 May 2007, lot 53 present lot. This attempt to create tonal differences
EXHIBITED by using colours to build upon the painted surface
F N Souza: Black on Black, presented by Grosvenor Gallery resulted in a relief‒like texture. Unlike his usual
at London: Frieze Masters, 17 ‒ 20 October 2013 figurative works that were symbolic of his excoriating
PUBLISHED views of society characterised by distorted features,
Aziz Kurtha, Francis Newton Souza: Bridging Western and the present lot depicts a far more softer countenance
Indian Modern Art, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 2006, of a woman, albeit with the classic gaze reminiscent
pl. 230 (illustrated) of paintings seen in Spanish Romanesque art that the
Zehra Jumabhoy, F N Souza: Black on Black, London: artist was prone to adapting.
Grosvenor Gallery, 2013, p. 36 (illustrated)
According to Zehra Jumabhoy, this series was also
Present lot published in Zehra Jumabhoy, F N Souza: perhaps motivated by Souza’s personal quest to
Black on Black, London: Grosvenor Gallery, 2013, p. 36 address politics of race and identity. It seemed to be
“on the cusp of a dialogue about racial exclusion...
128 After all, 1960s Britain was a dark place for most
painters... If his earlier and later paintings were
characterised by thick black lines, they also revelled
in colour: acid yellows, harsh blues, bloody reds.
By the last 1950s, and early ’60s, however, Souza's
images were swamped by sinister shades... Perhaps
too, Souza’s own circumstances as a ‘man of colour,’
instigated him to tune into an even gloomier facet
of Post‒War Britain: discrimination.” (Jumabhoy, pp.
9‒10)

The ‘black on black’ series is considered to one
of the peak innovations of Souza’s artistic career,
unequivocally asserting his mastery of line and
impasto within the bounds of a single colour.

129

130

F N Souza’s early figurative, "futuristic" works of the 1950s set F N Souza
the precedent for a unique style that went beyond outward © Jyoti Bhatt
appearances to reveal and critique characters, personalities
and depravations. The present lot was painted during a 131
defining period for the artist, whose work had finally gained
recognition in London's art circles following the publication
of his autobiographical essay "Nirvana of a Maggot" and his
subsequent solo show at Victor Musgrave's Gallery One in
February 1955. "Many of the tendencies that became distinct
in Souza's later years could be detected in these early works.
The thick, bounding line, the distortion of the figure and the
dislocation of facial characteristics had already begun to mark
his style." (Yashodhara Dalmia, "A Passion for the Human
Figure," The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives,
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 80)

With distorted features on scarred faces – which were at
times an allusion to the scars he retained from contracting
smallpox as a child – Souza's paintings of 'Heads' had become
a predominant theme in his body of work from the 1940s
onwards. In the same year that the present lot was painted,
Andrew Forge observed that, "Somewhere behind any serious
portrait painting there is a wish to gain command of a person...
But in Souza you can see the real thing operating, you can see
him closing in on his images as though they could save his life, or
backing away from them as though they could kill him. Souza
himself has said that he has made of his art 'a metabolism. I
express myself freely in paint in order to exist.'" ("Round the
London Galleries," The Listener, 28 November 1957)

The ‘Heads’ represented both a sense of self‒deprecation and
a critique of human society, offering a channel for the artist’s
observations and social commentary, and even scathing
critiques of the soulless clergy and gentry. According to
British writer and critic Edwin Mullins, who wrote a seminal
monograph on the artist in 1962, "...because his images are
clearly intended to be human, one is compelled to ask why
his faces have eyes high up in the forehead, or else scattered
in profusion all over the face; why he paints mouths that
stretch like hair combs across the face, and limbs that branch
out like thistles. Souza's imagery is not a surrealist vision ‒ a
self‒conscious aesthetic shock ‒ so much as a spontaneous re‒
creation of the world as he has seen it, distilled in the mind by
a host of private experiences and associations." (Edwin Mullins,
Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd., 1962, p. 39)

HAROLD KOVNER went to Gallery Iris Clert, but was unimpressed
by their collection of abstracts. The eponymous
Harold Kovner with his portrait by Souza gallery owner possessed several paintings by Souza,
Image courtesy of Victor Kovner and showed some of these works to Kovner with
some reluctance. “Kovner jumped. Within 24 hours
In 1956, Souza found his first major patron, the he had met Souza, given him money, taken away
wealthy American collector and hospital owner some pictures, made arrangements for the future,
Harold Kovner, through a gallery in Paris. Having and was flying back to New York. The arrangement
arrived from New York looking for new artists, Kovner was a perfectly simple one. Souza was to keep him
supplied with pictures every few months – entirely
of the artist’s choosing – and in return Kovner would
keep him supplied with money.” (Edwin Mullins, F N
Souza, London: Anthony Blond Ltd., 1962, p. 26)

The duration of this patronage, which lasted four
years, was creatively and artistically, the most
energising period of Souza’s career. Kovner’s regular
stipend relieved Souza of financial troubles, allowing
him more freedom to paint than ever before.
Kovner’s support during this critical period was a
time of unprecedented inventiveness for the artist.
The present lot was part of Kovner’s collection of
Souza paintings.

The theme of heads, with their thick black lines surrounding flat planes of colour, was common in Souza’s work in the 1950s.

Pagoda Head, 1956 Elongated Head with Nails and Arrows, 1957 The King, 1957
Saffronart, 10‒11 June 2015, lot 46 Saffronart, 6‒7 December 2006, lot 145 Saffronart, 16‒17 March 2011, lot 35

132

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED
PRIVATE COLLECTION, NEW YORK
46

F N SOUZA (1924‒2002)

Figure on Red and Green Background
Signed and dated 'Souza 57' (upper right)
1957
Oil on Masonite
48.25 x 24 in (122.6 x 61 cm)
$300,000 ‒ 400,000
Rs 2,16,00,000 ‒ 2,88,00,000
PROVENANCE
Formerly in the Collection of
Harold Kovner, New York
Saffronart, 19‒20 September 2012, lot 30
EXHIBITED
Picasso Souza, New Delhi: Vadehra Art
Gallery, 7 December 2011 ‒ 14 January 2012
PUBLISHED
Picasso Souza, New Delhi: Vadehra Art
Gallery, 2012 (illustrated)

“Renaissance painters painted men and women making them
look like angels. I paint for angels, to show them what men and
women really look like.” – F N SOUZA

133

134

"A playful relationship exists between form and space. Indeed,
what is form in one context becomes space in another and
vice versa. Form and space are so interlinked that it is difficult
to talk of them separately." – PRABHAKAR BARWE

135

Image courtesy of Delhi Art Gallery

Prabhakar Barwe’s artistic career spanned three decades, during which he explored the nuances of form and
space. His distinctive imagery draws from aspects of Surrealism and is based on placing seemingly random
objects on an undefined background. Restrained and meditative, these symbols often appear to float in space,
removed from their original context and taking on new meanings. While a student at the J J School of Arts in
the 1950s, his art was more realistic and gradually transitioned to abstraction. In the 1970s, Barwe's thematic
and stylistic concerns altered drastically. “Newly interested in space as a metaphysical concept, he began
striving for a purity of form and colour. The fluid relationship between an object, an idea, and its translation
into an image became a 'meta‒level' concern. The works begin to take on a gentle lyricism.” (Amrita Jhaveri,
A Guide to 101 Modern & Contemporary Indian Artists, Mumbai: India Book House Pvt. Ltd., 2005, pp. 14‒15)

"If we pay more attention, the surface of the work appears to be shifting, something ambiguous. Its appearance
suggests an empty space, but it gains depth, almost casually as it were, as if it were leaving room for a “cloudy
sky”. The surface seems to move in mute agitation: a wavering light, some projected shadows, an ant passing
by... Or rather, in a different formulation: these many objects which express an inner climate, and a stifling
one. An inmost monsoon, but one withheld.” (Gyan Panchal, the doorstep, Mumbai: Jhaveri Contemporary, 22
April ‒ 13 June 2015, online)

The present lot from 1989, probably one of the last works Barwe completed before his death in 1995, is a
testament to the poetic economy of the distinctive style he spent his career refining. He places organic and
inorganic forms against an austere background. This careful arrangement “...reflect[s] certain essential features
of poetic form; the brevity of elements, the multiple resonance of their meanings, a certain instantness of
something grasped lucidly. These paintings do not reflect the world but rather show one way of seeing reality
and at once experiencing it. The profound stillness that emanates from this space is a contemplative silence in
which the spectator’s eye is turned inward.” (V Sharma, Prabhakar Barwe, Mumbai: Gallery Chemould, 1987)

136

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION
47

PRABHAKAR BARWE (1936‒1995)

Book of Life
Signed and dated in Devnagari, further inscribed
and dated 'PRABHAKAR BARWE 1989/ 'BOOK OF LIFE'' (on the reverse)
1989
Enamel on canvas
46.5 x 52.75 in ( 118 x 134 cm )
$120,000 ‒ 180,000
Rs 86,40,000 ‒ 1,29,60,000
PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the artist, circa 1990s
Private Collection, USA
Acquired from the above

137

48 A view of the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra

K K HEBBAR (1911‒1996)

Untitled (Ajanta)

Signed and dated in Devnagari (lower left)
1966
Oil on canvas
30 x 36.25 in (76.5 x 92 cm)

$40,000 ‒ 50,000
Rs 28,80,000 ‒ 36,00,000

PROVENANCE
Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection
Sotheby's, New York, 12 June 1995, lot 23
Christie's, New York, 20 March 2013, lot 30
Private Collection, UK

138

139

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE reverse
COLLECTION, LONDON

49

ZARINA HASHMI (1937‒2020)

Packed House

Signed and dated 'Zarina 94' (lower right), titled
(lower centre) and inscribed '11/20' (lower left)
1994
Woodcut on paper
Print size: 10.75 x 8.75 in (27 x 22.5 cm) (each)
Sheet size: 17.75 x 14.5 in (45 x 37 cm) (each)

$15,000 ‒ 20,000
Rs 10,80,000 ‒ 14,40,000

Eleventh from a limited edition of twenty

Portfolio of four woodcuts printed in an edition of
twenty

PROVENANCE
Sotheby's, London, 31 May 2011, lot 49

EXHIBITED
Zarina: Weaving Memory, 1990‒2006, Mumbai: Bodhi Art,
2007 (another from the edition)

The art of Zarina Hashmi — or simply 'Zarina' as she preferred to be known — has always engaged with the
politics of home, displacement and migration, informed by a lifetime of travelling and relocating. The Indian‒born
American artist, according to critic Holland Cotter, “turned the history of her peripatetic life into an emotional
and spiritual guide composed of spare images, poetic words and subtle politics.” (Holland Cotter, “Zarina Hashmi,
Artist of a World in Search of Home, Dies at 82,” The New York Times, 5 May 2020, online)

Zarina's works continue to remain germane — even decades after they were made — to the political circumstances
of our time. The following two lots made in the 1990s, represent successively expanding physical spaces, from a
microcosmic house to the scenic vistas of a city, and are emblematic of the artist’s concerns with the concept of
home and memory.

Zarina’s exposure to Islamic design and architecture — which partly came from her father, a professor of Mughal
history, inculcating this interest in her — as well as her own background in mathematics, formed the structural
foundation of her geometric style in later years. However, it is the nostalgic memory of her home, of spending
hot summers outdoors under the stars with her sister, that shapes the emotional depth of her art. As seen in the
present lot, titled Packed House, “The floor plan of her childhood house, whose walls enclosed a fragrant garden,
became a recurrent presence in her art.” (Cotter, online)

140

“I just made my personal life the subject of my art.” — ZARINA

141

Image courtesy of Gallery Espace
142

Both lots 49 and 50 were precursors to a seminal portfolio of 36 woodcut
prints that Zarina made in 1999 titled Home is a Foreign Place. “Made
during a particularly fraught period when the artist faced eviction from
her Manhattan loft, the folios in this series are visual responses to words
in her native Urdu that conjure multiple senses of home — from the areas
of a physical space to the experience of weather in a particular place to
the cosmic phenomena that mark the passage of time.” (metmuseum.org,
online)

Zarina’s choice of medium is equally important as the issues she chooses
to represent. Her use of woodcut — a medium used primarily as protest
art in the works of Mexican political artists and 20th century German
Expressionists — combined with the inclusion of the Urdu script, and
calligraphic and geometric elements reminiscent of Islamic art and
architectural forms, evoke a stark and meaningful aesthetic. “For Zarina...
ink is not just ink, and paper is not just any old paper. Mounted against
the muted, grainy background of Arches Cover or Somerset stock, which
is wispy around the edges, each type of image calls for its own variety of
handmade paper — from Japanese Kozo to Indian and Nepalese. The
artist subjects them all to staining, folding, threading, and puncturing
in turn... Even in Zarina’s more overtly two‒dimensional works, there is a
tension between the fragility and lightness of the materials deployed and
the impression of solidity and weight they convey.” (Agnieszka Gratza,
“Zarina's Folding House,” Art Agenda Reviews, 3 March 2014, online)

In recent years, there has been increasingly great interest in Zarina's work.
She was one of the four artists who represented India at the Venice
Biennale in 2011. This was followed by a retrospective show of her works
titled Zarina: Paper like Skin at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles
in 2012, which travelled to the Guggenheim in New York, and the Art
Institute of Chicago. Zarina passed away on 25 April 2020, leaving a legacy
of “...a life left behind and a life well lived. Her work could be stunningly
beautiful and haptic as easily as it could be cerebral and abstract — but
it was always meaningful and carefully considered, as she was herself.”
(Lowry, online)

143

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED
PRIVATE COLLECTION, LONDON

50

ZARINA HASHMI (1937‒2020)

Santa Cruz

Signed and dated 'Zarina 96' (lower right), titled
(lower centre) and inscribed '18/20' (lower left)
1996
Etching on Lana Gravure paper
Print size: 10.25 x 7.5 in (26 x 18.7 cm) (each)
Sheet size: 17.75 x 13.75 in (45 x 35 cm) (each)

$15,000 ‒ 20,000
Rs 10,80,000 ‒ 14,40,000

Eighteenth from a limited edition of twenty

This work comprises four etchings and a line from an
Urdu poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz

PROVENANCE
Sotheby's, London, 31 May 2011, lot 48

reverse

The present lot was made during the artist’s A life of diplomatic missions took Zarina and her husband to various
time in Santa Cruz, California, likely inspired locations. “The criss‒crossing of cities and the experience of being in
by the scenic views of Monterey Bay and the different places and homes, with different people, is reflected in her creative
Pacific Ocean. expression.” (Kusum Haider, “Towards the Light,” The Indian Quarterly,
online) After her husband's death in 1977, Zarina moved to New York
Monterey Bay City and became involved in the Manhattan art world, particularly with
Wikimedia Commons the feminist art movement. It was also around this time in the early 1980s
that the themes of home and exile became central to her art.
144
In 1992, Zarina moved to California and began teaching printmaking at
University of California, Santa Cruz, where she would live for another five
years. The present lot was made during this time. The set of four etchings,
titled Santa Cruz, Monterey Bay, Night Sea and Dark Sea — with text in
Urdu, likely from a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz — represent abstracted
memories of her time in the West Coast city. Here, she “uses the rigid
formality of light and dark blocks to conjure up the mysterious space
of creativity out of which poetry appears,” while simultaneously evoking
the Pacific Ocean vistas at night. (Glenn D Lowry, “Remembering Zarina
(1937‒2020),” moma.org, 30 April 2020, online)

“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

145

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How do I view the lots? How do I register to bid?
All lots for sale are featured in this auction catalogue. The
number listed next to each image is the lot number and Bidders are advised to register at least 24 hours in advance
should be used as a reference during bidding or for any of the sale. Bidders may choose to register online or send
information requests. The lots in this sale may be viewed in their details to Saffronart and we will process the details
through any of the following: for you. Saffronart requires the following details from a first
(i) Viewings – Details listed on the Sales and Enquiries time bidder to register and process an approval to bid:

section of the printed catalogue (i) Name
(ii) The online auction catalogue available on saffronart.com
(iii) The printed auction catalogue (ii) Address
(iv) The mobile auction catalogue available for download
(iii) Telephone Number
on your mobile device
(iv) Email Address
What do you mean by ‘Condition of Lots’?
All Lots will be shipped out in an ‘as is’ condition, (v) Know Your Customer (KYC) documents
meaning that the Lot is sold with all existing faults and
imperfections. Saffronart encourages all potential buyers (vi) Credit card information/financial references/deposits
to inspect each Lot carefully before bidding and to not
rely on an illustration of any Lot given in the catalogue. In some cases, Saffronart may request for a bidding limit
Condition reports for all Lots are available as a free service, value which is a per lot limit based on your current bid value.
online or upon request.
If you have bid or been approved to bid with Saffronart
What are special lots? before, please use your Saffronart login and password to
Lots marked as “Art Treasures” and/or “Antiquities” under accept the conditions for sale online. Collecting a paddle in
the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972 cannot be a live auction also implies an acceptance of the Conditions
exported outside India. Buyers are solely responsible for for Sale. Please note the invoicing details provided at the
meeting the requirements of the Antiquities and Art time of registration cannot be changed after the sale.
Treasures Act, 1972 or any related state legislation.
How do I Bid?
What are Price Estimates?
Each Lot has a price range listed. These estimates are based (i) Bidding in the Room: All approved bidders, including
on characteristics of the Lot such as condition, quality, those who have registered online, will be handed a
rarity, provenance. These estimates are provided only as paddle to bid in the auction. Please bring a proof of
a guide for buyers and do not include Buyer’s Premium identity to collect your paddle. Registrations open 30
or applicable taxes. If applicable there is a link for pricing minutes prior to the sale.
achieved for similar art works at auction available next to
the Lot in the online catalogue. Price estimates may be (ii) Bidding Online: Bidders may view and hear the
subject to revision. auction on their PC or Mac with our real‒time online
video feed from the auction room. Online bidders
What is a Reserve Price? may place a bid by clicking on the “Bid Now” button
Unless stated otherwise, all Lots offered in the auction are when their lot of interest is open for bidding. If their
subject to a reserve price, which is the minimum price bid is accepted by the auctioneer, it will be recorded.
that the Lot may be sold for. No Lot will be sold below its After you enter your bid, it is advisable to view the
reserve price and the reserve price will not exceed the low bid history to verify that your bid has been recorded.
price estimate. Reserve prices are confidential and will not Please note that bidders may be contacted during
be disclosed. the auction for bid verification in order to protect all
bidders and maintain the efficacy of the process.
146
(iii) Bidding on the Phone: Saffronart accepts requests
from bidders to place bids on the phone with our
staff depending on availability. To avail of this service,
you must be registered as a bidder. Please note that
the number of telephone lines available for telephone
bidding may be limited and this facility is provided at
Saffronart’s discretion.

(iv) Bidding on the Mobile: Bidders may download a What is Buyer’s Premium?
software application from Saffronart onto their iOS
or Android mobile device and use it to place bids Saffronart charges the buyer a premium on the winning bid
during the sale. To avail of this service, you must be value. The Buyer’s Premium is calculated at the rate of 20%
registered as a bidder. of the winning bid value on each lot up to and including
INR 20,00,00,000/ USD 2,700,000; 15% of the winning bid
(v) Absentee/Proxy Bids: Bidders may place bids prior value in excess of INR 20,00,00,000/ USD 2,700,000 up to
to the sale either online or in writing by submitting and including INR 30,00,00,000/ USD 4,000,000; and 12%
the absentee/proxy bid form. See the Absentee/ of the winning bid value in excess of INR 30,00,00,000/
Proxy Bid Form available at the back of the printed USD 4,000,000. For lots being shipped within and/or from
catalogue, or on the website. Absentee/proxy bids India, a GST (Goods and Services Tax) at applicable rate
shall be accepted up to a certain time prior to the on the Buyer’s Premium shall be payable by the Buyer. This
sale which will be listed online. is applicable for deliveries within India as well as overseas.

What are bid increments? How will I be invoiced?

Any new bid must be greater than the current highest bid If you win a bid, you will be sent an email after the close
by a minimum increment. The next valid bid amount is of the auction, containing an invoice for the winning bid
the current highest bid plus the minimum increment plus additional charges (shipping, handling, duties and
value. The auctioneer may vary the increments during taxes as applicable) and the Buyer’s Premium plus GST
the course of the auction at his or her discretion. Online at applicable rates. The invoicing details provided at the
bids however, are accepted only at the next valid bid time of registration will be used to raise the invoice and
based on the minimum increment. Please refer to the bid no changes will be accepted after the sale. For lots located
increments printed at the back of the catalogue (on the in India, winning bidders located in India will be invoiced
reverse of the Absentee/Proxy Bid Form). in INR and all other winning bidders will be invoiced in
USD. For all out of India lots, marked with the symbol
Can a bid be cancelled? , winning bidders will be invoiced in USD. Payments must
be made in the currency on the invoice.
No bid may be cancelled by a bidder. Saffronart reserves
the right to cancel a bid at its discretion if it considers it You may review acceptable modes of payment described
necessary to do so. in the section below. If you are the winning bidder, you are
legally bound to purchase the item from Saffronart. Please
What is the currency of bidding? note that purchases will not be shipped out until payment
has been received and cleared.
For all Lots located in India, the currency of bidding is INR.
However, buyers with an invoicing address outside India What are additional charges?
are invoiced in USD at the exchange rate fixed for the sale.
Bids for all out of India Lots, marked with the symbol All post‒sales expenses, including packing, insurance,
, may be placed only in US Dollars (USD). Please see the shipping or handling charges, are borne by the buyer.
exchange rate section in our Conditions for Sale online. Shipping will be charged on courier rates and are
determined by the value, origin and destination of the
What is an Opening/Start Bid? package. Local deliveries will be charged at actuals.

The opening/start bid is the value at which the auction You may choose to make your own arrangements for
house starts the bidding on a particular lot. shipping and handling. However, all documentation
requirements must be complied with. Please contact us
When does a lot sell? for further details.

The fall of the auctioneer’s gavel shall mark the close What are the Duties and Taxes applicable on my purchase?
of bidding on each lot. The final bid announced by the
auctioneer is considered a winning bid in the sale, if the All duties and taxes applicable shall be borne by the buyer
auctioneer announces the lot as sold. and will depend on the value, origin and destination of the
package.

147

(i) Deliveries in India for lots originating in India via email. If you have not received your invoice within 48
hours of the close of the sale, please contact us.
Any sale of lots originating from India to an address
in India is subject to a GST at applicable rates on the For Buyers in India
winning bid value and an 18% GST on the Buyer’s
Premium. The final charges will be determined at the Payment can be made in INR only by the following
close of the auction and will be sent by email to the acceptable modes of payment:
winning bidder.
(i) Cheque/Demand Draft: To be made in favour of
(ii) International shipments for lots originating in India Saffron Art Private Limited

For lots originating from India, an 18% GST on (ii) RTGS/NEFT: Details will be included with the invoice
the Buyer’s Premium is applicable. There may be and available upon request
duties and taxes levied depending on the delivery
destination which typically will be on the total of (iii) Credit card: up to INR equivalent of USD 5,000
the winning bid and shipping and handling values.
Depending on the shipping address, these duties and For Buyers outside India
taxes vary according to customs regulations in the
destination country. Any shipments to EU countries Payment can be made in USD only by the following
will be charged an additional VAT as applicable. acceptable modes of payment:
Please contact Saffronart for further details.
(i) Cheque: To be made in favour of Saffron Art Private
For imports, the terms of sale are Delivered Duty Limited
Unpaid (DDU). It is the Buyer’s responsibility to
pay all international duties, customs charges, taxes (ii) Direct wire transfer: Details will be included with the
and tariffs to the respective authorities. Normally, invoice and available upon request
the couriers we contract will pay import duties on
behalf of the buyer and get reimbursed at the time of (iii) Credit card: up to USD 5,000
delivery.
(iv) Payment from an NRE account: The invoice will be
(iii) Shipments and Deliveries for lots originating raised in USD based on the winning bid value, and
outside India (lots marked with the symbol ) the buyer will have to transfer an equivalent INR
amount at the bank exchange rate
Lots  marked with    are not situated in India and
therefore, may only be bid for and purchased in When will my purchases be delivered/can I collect my
USD. Persons residing in India, wishing to bid in USD purchases?
must be eligible under the various foreign exchange
regulations to make payments overseas. Please Purchases shipped out within 10 ‒ 15 business days of the
contact Saffronart for further details. payment being cleared and are insured under the terms
of Saffronart’s insurance policy (please note that frames
In the event that the lot is to be shipped are not insured). If there is an expected delay in dispatch,
internationally, additional charges for international the buyer will be informed of the delay via email, unless
shipments mentioned in the above section shall the buyer has indicated an alternative preferred mode of
apply. communication. Due to the prevailing COVID‒19 global
health crisis, buyers can expect a delay in shipping and
Please Note: Lots may require permits for import or delivery of the purchased lots.
be subject to import restrictions to certain countries.
Potential buyers are advised to check import For Lots located in India, Buyers may choose to collect
regulations prior to making a bid decision. their purchases from the Saffronart office in Mumbai. In
such cases, buyers are requested to make an appointment
How do I make payment? to collect purchases within 10 ‒ 15 business days of
completion of all payments and documentation formalities.
Buyers will be required to complete payment within a Buyers who have completed payment formalities and have
period of 7 business days from the receipt of the invoice not taken delivery of their lots from Saffronart within 30
days of the completion of payment formalities will be
148 charged storage and insurance at applicable rates.