M. F. Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra) bought at Christie’s for $13.8 million in New York, making it the costliest work of contemporary Indian artwork ever publicly auctioned.
That quantity, which incorporates charges, shattered the public sale home’s estimate of $2.5 million–$3.5 million and was greater than 4 instances the artist’s earlier document of $3.1 million, which was set by his portray Untitled (Reincarnation) final September at Sotheby’s in London.
The earlier document for a contemporary Indian work was $7.4 million, for Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Story Teller (1937), which bought in September 2023 in Mumbai. (S. H. Raza’s 1959 portray Kallisté, which bought final March at Sotheby’s for $5.6 million, was given an estimate of $2 million–$3 million—the very best value ever placed on a contemporary Indian art work at public sale, a spokesperson for that home mentioned.)
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The Husain document was mintedduring Christie’s sale for South Asian trendy and modern artwork, a class which continues to garner momentum regardless of a fragmented artwork market.
The 1954 portray, which is sort of 14 toes lengthy, was a consignment 13 years within the making and one which Nishad Avari, the New York–primarily based head of Christie’s South Asian trendy and modern artwork division, known as “by far some of the important works” he’s seen in his profession.
Avari informed ARTnews that, previous to the sale, his division had hoped Untitled (Gram Yatra) would change Husain’s market, which has lagged in comparison with F. H. Souza and Raza, two different members of the Progressive Artists’ Group.
Of the Husain portray, Avari mentioned, “It contains of 13 separate vignettes of village life in India, which is actually necessary, as a result of that is 5 years after Indian independence, and Husain and all his colleagues are attempting to determine on the time what it means to be a contemporary Indian artist.”
Within the portray Untitled (Gram Yatra), Husain emphasizes the centrality of village and rural life in India as the premise for going ahead as a brand new nation. Avari additionally famous that one of many 13 vignettes portrays a standing farmer—the one male determine within the within the piece. It is a self-portrait of kinds, and the one picture which crosses into one other vignette of a panorama with fields. “It’s actually a portrait of a farmer as a sustainer of the land and a protector of the land,” Avari mentioned.
The unique proprietor of the portray was Leon Elias Volodarsky, a Norwegian basic surgeon and personal artwork collector, who acquired Untitled (Gram Yatra) in New Delhi in 1954, whereas heading a World Well being Group crew stationed there to ascertain a thoracic surgical procedure coaching heart. Volodarsky’s property donated it to the Oslo College Hospital in 1964.
When the hospital first contacted Christie’s about Untitled (Gram Yatra), Avari mentioned his crew’s fast response was: “We’re getting on a aircraft.”
For seven many years, Untitled (Gram Yatra) was unavailable for viewing by the general public. “It was in a personal neuroscience hall,” Avari mentioned.
The 13-year course of to get it to the public sale block on March 19 included gaining the mandatory permissions from the Oslo College Hospital’s board when the establishment was lastly able to promote. “What’s actually, actually gratifying, is that the proceeds are going for use to arrange a coaching heart for medical doctors in Dr. Volodarsky’s identify,” Avari mentioned.
