British auction House Gives Indian Canvas a Facelift.

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Famed UK auctioneer Bonhams is into reviving sales of Indian contemporary art with gusto. The art house is fielding 70-plus lots of Indian paintings at its April ’06 sale of Islamic and Indian art in London. The total estimated value of the auction is pegged at £1-1.5m.
Bonhams has also designed the first ever sale of a single Indian artist in May ’06. The auctioneer will place 40 paintings of FN Souza exclusively under the hammer. “We have 71 lots of Indian contemporary paintings at the April auction. There is one catalogue for Islamic and a separate one for Indian art, which includes contemporary paintings.
Just like other auction houses, Bonhams had auctioned Indian contemporary art from the mid-’90s till the late ’90s. Sales stopped because they were not faring well. “The market is far better now and Bonhams has relaunched Indian contemporary art auctions in London from ’04.
The number of lots is increasing every year,” Mehreen Rizvi Khursheed, a specialist of Indian and Pakistani art at Bonhams, told ET from London. In the April auction, Bonhams is fielding top artists, including FN Souza, Tyeb Mehta, Jamini Roy, AR Chugtai and J Swaminathan.
According to Ms Khursheed, on sale is an “immensely powerful” work by Souza, titled ‘Last Howl From The Cross’. “It’s a disturbing image of the crucified Christ, making a last agonised scream from the cross. The painting is set to make a world record price at the sale.
The picture, which has been in possession of a British family since 1964, is estimated to sell between £200,000 and £300,000. The ‘Last Howl’ shows a skeletal Christ with the teeth of a skull,” Ms Khursheed said. The auction also embraces a collection of Souza landscapes, which reflect estimates of £60,000-80,000, £30,000-50,000 and £20,000-30,000.
There are a couple of nudes too, ranging from £50,000-70,000 to £80,000-120,000. At the same time, an ‘emperor’ figure is estimated at £80,000-120,000. All the Souza works have come from private collections and many have not appeared in the market since the 1960s.
On tap are also Tyeb Mehta’s ‘Pink Nude’ pricedat £150,000-200,000, a Swaminathan with an estimate of £60,000-80,000 and a mix of Jamini Roy works from the collection of late Austin Coates. The 11 Roy works have seen estimates of £10,000-15,000 on the higher side and £1,500-2000 at the lower end.
The dedicated Souza sale in May will witness a variety of paperwork. These paintings will embrace watercolours, drawings and oils.

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