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The Indian top 10

SUNEET CHOPRA

It is time now to see how the last year’s top 10 ‘Indian Artists of the 20th Century’ have fared this year. When we look at the prices their works were sold at in recent art auctions in New York City and New Delhi, our contention that tastes do not change in art as in fashion stands confirmed.

Rabindranath Tagore, whose works came up for sale recently in Delhi, is still among our highest priced artists. In 1999, his work sold at around Rs 680 per square centimetre (sq. cm.). Today, three drawings of Tagore’s that came up for sale were bid for up to Rs 5 lakh (Rs 520.83 per sq. cm.). Another drawing bid for up to Rs 1.30 lakh (Rs 148.15 per sq. cm.). A third one sold at Rs 3 lakh (Rs 902.25 per sq. cm.), which averages out at Rs 523.74 per sq. cm. The reasons why prices were down at the New Delhi auction were many, but when we look at the range, we can see that the drawings of the poet, where people are confident of the authenticity, should sell at a price above Rs 680 per sq. cm. today.

In the same auction, two works of Abanindranath Tagore came up for sale. One was bid for up to Rs 2.20 lakh (Rs 1,195.65 per sq. cm.) and the other up to Rs 90,000 (Rs 290.32), averaging out to Rs. 742.98 per sq. cm. A number of works of Jamini Roy were up for sale as well. At the New Delhi sale, they were bid for up to Rs 2 lakh (Rs 40.82 per sq. cm.) and Rs 1.50 lakh (Rs 97.56 per sq. cm.), while at New York, a very good work of the artist sold for Rs 7.99 lakh (Rs 122.67 per sq. cm.), averaging out to Rs 87 per sq. cm. This, too, is close to the Rs 99.51 per sq. cm. that we noted in 1999. The low price in Delhi being for reasons other than purely the awaiting of the work.

When we look at these prices, we can see that despite the scandals that are rocking the Bengal artists’ works, one expects the works of Gaganendranath, Abanindranath and Rabindranath Tagore to remain stable. One has the same expectation from the works of Jamini Roy and Nandlal Bose. The same goes for artists such as N S Bendre.

Among the living artists, M F Husain’s works in New York sold at a high of nearly Rs 20 lakh for two works (Rs 76.55 per sq. cm.) and another three at Rs 10 and Rs 11 lakh in New York and in Delhi that work out to an average of Rs 180 per sq. cm., which is considerably better than that of Rs 88.27 in 1999. Clearly, there has been a spurt in Husain’s popularity. However, when we look at the price of the tempera on canvas works of Ganesh Pyne, which were bid up to Rs 6.20 lakh at New York (Rs 233.84 per sq. cm.), we see that he is still the most expensive living Indian artist that we have. So, while it would appear that the prices of individual artists may rise or fall, the list of the 10 best living and 10 best artists of the 20th century still stands.

The reason for this is evident. Artistic tastes are evolved over a period of time. But changes do occur with major societal changes such as India becoming independent in 1947, resulting in the retreat of the colonial kitsch of Raja Ravi Varma (as distinct from the academic portraiture of Hemen Majumdar) in the face of the radically different art of the Bengal School, the Progressive Artists’ Group and other modernist groups in the metropolitan centres of the country. No such drastic changes appear to be in the offing in the immediate future, so we can expect our list of 1999 to be fairly secure for some time to come. Also, V S Gaitonde has died, but we retain his name, as the prices of his work are expected to rise. So we are reproducing the list of 1999 for the collector’s benefit.