The sale of a 1905 painting of Picasso, ?Boy With A Pipe? for a record $104.2 million (Rs 466 crore approximately) at Sotheby?s in New York reflects some important changes regarding investments in the world of contemporary art today. The first of these is that the impressionists, whose works had so far sold at the highest prices, have been upstaged by the modernists. This is reflected in two more of Picasso?s works selling at record prices, putting Van Gogh?s ?Portrait of Dr Gachet? at third place now. What is more, the work sold at $34.2 million (Rs 152.5 crore approximately) above the price expected of it.

Of the modernists too, Picasso was the most radical. A communist, he started painting his most famous work, ?Guernica,? an indictment of the fascist attack on a village of the same name during the Spanish civil war, on May Day. Moreover, he refused to have his work exhibited in Spain as long as General Franco was in power. Moreover, he lived in exile in France.

As such, modernism and radicalism both characterise his work. This is significant as these sales have taken place in the US, with a government that has shown itself to be more unashamedly savage and conservative than any before it. This is a clear indication that civilisation and conservatism are at loggerheads in the US today and conservatism is losing out among the people.

It is also important that art sales are global phenomena, so one can expect radical artists to do better here as well. In fact, in the March sales of Sotheby?s and Christie?s in New York, FN Souza, the artist closest to Picasso in India, sold for no less than $1,53,600 (Rs 69 lakh) at Sotheby?s on March 24 this year. The next day, three more of his works sold at Christie?s for $41825 (Rs 19 lakh), $35,850 (Rs 16 lakh) and $28,680 (Rs 13 lakh) respectively.

Untitled, acrylic on board by SH Raza

The broad trend continues. At the Saffronart online auction of 4-6 May, we find Souza?s unusual study of a Samurai on a horse of 1963 selling for no less than Rs 61.4 lakh which is a record for Souza sales in India. Moreover, the figure is nearly three times the maximum price expected for the work. Similarly, a landscape with a church of 1989 that was expected to fetch Rs 8.49 lakh at most sold for Rs 22.3 lakh.

A head that was expected to fetch Rs 16.3 lakh sold for Rs 32.6 lakh. Two landscapes, one of 1974 and one of 1984, sold at Rs 10.6 lakh and Rs 11.6 lakh respectively, when they were expected to fetch Rs 6.3 lakh and Rs 6.5 lakh respectively. A Souza nude of 1956 that was expected to fetch a maximum of Rs 10.75 lakh sold for no less than Rs 15.25 lakh while another of 1989 sold Rs 8.20 lakh.

Of the seven acrylics and oils on canvas or board, only one sold at a little less than maximum price expected. It is evident that Souza was the star of the auction with all nine works up for sale getting sold. Tastes are radicalising in contemporary art and serious investors must take note of this reality.

Apart from Souza, Husain, a fellow member of the Progressive Artists Group, is another artist who had eleven works up for sale. Of these, the highest price bid was for an untitled work of the 1970s that sold for Rs 29.6 lakh, some Rs 7 lakh above the maximum expected. Other works that went above the maximum were a horse study of 2003 that sold for Rs 22.2 lakh, another of 1998 that went for Rs 15.8 lakh, a head of 1961 that sold for Rs 20.2 lakh, a mother Theresa that went for Rs 19.2 lakh and a woman with a hookah that went for Rs 19.7 lakh. Husain has done well, but Souza has outstripped him this time.

A third member of the group, SH Raza, fetched a good Rs 67.9 lakh for his ?Bindu-Bija Mantra,? with elements of the symbolic, abstract and narrative in it, but of his eight works up for sale, three failed to sell, while only three went above the maximum price expected. One can conclude then that radical figurative modernist art has the edge over symbolic abstract art, and Souza over Husain at the moment.

I expect this trend to develop in India and globally for some time to come. There is likely to be a shift from the conservatism of the recent past and a much more radical vision will take its place globally as well. In this climate, our perspective of promoting the art of India?s national movement and the progressive artists groups that developed alongside is a good bet to invest in.

The emergence of Souza as one of the stars in the firmament of our contemporary modernist art is a sign that the vision we have been evolving over the years is coming into its own at long last.