The record set by the sale of Francis Newton Souza’s epic painting, titled Birth, at international auction house Christie’s New York auction on Thursday, when it sold for $4,085,000, might be a high figure for Indian art. But art experts believe valuation of Indian art, when compared with global artists, is still very low. Deepanjana Klein, Christie’s international head of South Asian Art Department, told FE in an email: “Modern Indian masterpieces in terms of quality can hold their own next to any masterpiece from the western world. However, in terms of value, there is still a long way ahead. Slowly but surely, the gap is decreasing. We are starting to see more and more interest from western institutions, and, therefore, as the awareness increases, the demand will also increase.”
Figures speak for themselves. If one were to consider Birth alone, it achieved a 63% increase over its own previous record of $2.5 million, achieved at Christie’s in 2008, when it was bought by Tina Ambani, wife of industrialist Anil Ambani. She had reportedly bought it for her Harmony Art Foundation, which apparently made a tidy profit on the sale, though the work was estimated in Christie’s catalogue at surprisingly low figures of $2.2 million-$2.8 million. Thursday’s sale makes Birth the most expensive work sold at any south Asian art auction.
It was reportedly bought by prolific art collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar, wife of Shiv Nadar, the founder of HCL Technologies. However, Shiv Nadar Foundation refused to confirm the news when contacted, saying “it was market speculation”. Christie’s also did not disclose the identity of the buyer in the name of client confidentiality.
Souza painted the masterpiece in 1955, the same year of his seminal solo exhibition at Gallery One in London. This monumental painting represents the pinnacle of all the artist’s paintings of the 1950s. The painting comprises all the subjects to be found in Souza’s early practice; the pregnant outstretched nude with hairpins, the autobiographical man in priest’s tunic, a still life on the window ledge and beyond the window, a townscape with corniced buildings and tall steeples.
Another Souza work, titled Man and Woman Laughing, fetched approximately $2.59 million in a recent Saffronart sale held in New Delhi on September 10 this year,when it was reportedly bought by Delhi Art Gallery.
The previous record for the most expensive work by an Indian artist was held by VS Gaitonde, whose luminous painting had sold for $3.79 million at Christie’s inaugural India auction in Mumbai in 2013.
Klein enumerates VS Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, Francis Newton Souza and Syed Hyder Raza, to name a few, as some Indian artists who are in the top league and comparable with global giants.
As for Christie’s third auction in India, Klein said: “Featuring exceptional works of modern and contemporary south Asian art, the India sale will comprise approximately 80 tightly curated lots from important private and corporate collections. The catalogue includes modern masterpieces by Vasudeo S Gaitonde, Ram Kumar and Tyeb Mehta, alongside works by artists Nasreen Mohamedi and Manjit Bawa, and paintings by Nandalal Bose, Abanindranth Tagore and Gaganendranath Tagore, who are designated national treasures in India.