New Delhi, June 6 (IANS) Eminent Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gils work will lead Saffronarts two-day summer online auction starting from June 8.
While Sher-Gils untitled Zebegény landscape is estimated between Rs 3.9 crore (more than $595,000) and Rs 5.2 crore, many other works by leading modern and contemporary Indian artist V.S. Gaitonde will also go under the hammer.
Sher-Gil, one of the leading women artists, painted the landscape in 1931 during a summer holiday in the Hungarian village of Zebegény on the banks of the Danube.
The sale presents a very attractive and carefully considered selection that offers something for collectors at all stages and at different price points. Many works have excellent provenances and there are many rare and well priced opportunities for art lovers, said Saffronart CEO Hugo Weihe.
Other highlights include a painting done by by V S Gaitonde in 1953, estimated at between Rs 52 lakh and Rs 65 lakh, which was a part of the 'Painting as Process, Painting as Life' retrospective at New York's Guggenheim Museum. An early landscape by Ram Kumar, estimated at between Rs 65 lakh and Rs 97.5 lakh, marking his transition to abstract painting, is another attraction.
These two works are from the collection of Bilwa Chowdhury and Eleonore Chowdhury-Haberl, who were among the earliest collectors of Indian art, and involved in the nascent stages of the development of modern Indian art. They have built a significant art collection over the decades, much of which is now in Mumbai and Vienna.
With a pre-sale estimate of Rs 21.78 crore to Rs 29.46 crores, the auction will also have F.N. Souza's Untitled (after Titian's Venus of Urbino and Manet's Olympia). The impressive oil on board is estimated between Rs 1.1 crore and Rs 1.3 crore.
Apart from these, a seminal 1959 painting by K.K. Hebbar titled "Tile Factory", is estimated between Rs 16.25 lakh and Rs 22.75 lakhs. The sale also boasts of sculptures by Himmat Shah and Sankho Chaudhuri, and works by masters such as S.H. Raza and M.F. Husain.
A stainless steel installation by Subodh Gupta, estimated between Rs 97.5 lakhs and Rs 1.3 crores is among the highlights of contemporary Indian art. The selection also include works by G. Ravinder Reddy, Baiju Parthan, Sudarshan Shetty and Jitish Kallat.
The auction will begin at 9 a.m. on June 8 and conclude the next day. It will be preceded by a viewing of select lots in Mumbai and London.
