Modernist Indian painter Tyeb Mehta’s 1998 painting, “Kali” will go under the hammer at Saffronart’s upcoming online auction on June 13 and 14. The largest of Mehta’s three standing Kali figures painted between 1988 and 1989, the blue powerful artwork represents the eternal cosmic dilemma of the human condition: the battle of good and evil, creation and destruction. It is estimated at Rs 18.9 – 25.2 crores.
The work is significant not just because of its creator, but also because once it was part of the art collection of Ebrahim Alkazi, thereby being a testimony to the unique friendship shared between the artist and the theatre director. Alkazi inaugurated the first and largest solo exhibition of Mehta’s work at the Jehangir Art Gallery in 1959.
“This painting thus acquires added meaning not just for its outstanding merit as a work of art but also because it symbolizes the timeless connection between artist and collector,” Saffronart co-founder Dinesh Vazirani said. The painting will be on display in New York, and at Saffronart London.
