Sothebys : Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art at Sotheby's London

Exceptional array of Indian masterpieces comes to London for Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art Sale

Fresh to the market works including:

A previously unknown work by Bhupen Khakhar offered at auction for the first time An outstanding painting by Tyeb Mehta created at a critical artistic moment

A rediscovered rare selection of watercolours capturing views of early 20th century Bombay

LONDON, October 2017: This October, Sotheby's London will offer a distinguished and much sought-after array of works by some of the most celebrated artists of South Asian art drawn from prestigious collections from around the world. As well as a strong collection of fresh-to-the-market canvases by artists such as Tyeb Mehta, Bhupen Khakhar, Sayed Haider Raza, Jehangir Sabavala and Maqbool Fida Husain, the sale will feature an impressive selection of watercolours depicting views of early 20th century Bombay which are perfectly preserved and rare in their outstanding quality. The sale also includes a stellar group of works on paper from one of the UK's greatest

collections of Indian art. The full pre-sale exhibition will be on display from 20 to 24 October in London, followed by the auction on 25 October.

Yamini Mehta, International Head of Indian and South Asian Art, said: 'This is an elegant and highly curated group of works which we are excited to present to the market. The works have a consistent high quality, are well provenanced and extremely well priced to attract collectors at all levels.'

HIGHLIGHTS

Tyeb Mehta, Gesture, oil on canvas, 1978 Estimate: £900,000-1,500,000

The top lot of the sale is an oil on canvas by the Modernist painter Tyeb Mehta. Gesture, created in 1978, belongs to a sequence of works which brought focus to the 'hands' of figures, produced while Mehta lived in Delhi - an illustrious time in the artist's career during which he was a key figure in the art scene of the capital. The work represents an important transition in Mehta's style. It previously belonged to famed writer, art historian and cultural preservationist, Aman Nath, who was Tyeb's neighbor in Nizamuddin in the 1970s.

Bhupen Khakhar, Howard Hodgkin's House On Hand Painted Cushion, oil on canvas, 1979

Estimate: £100,000-150,000

The sale will include two works by Bhupen Khakhar, whose vivid and bold style won him acclaim as one of the greatest Indian artists of the 20th century. Offered at auction for the first time, Howard Hodgkin's House On Hand Painted Cushion depicts Hodgkin's Wiltshire home in the UK, testifying to the close bond between these two important artists. The work comes from a private English collection where it remained since it was exhibited in Khakhar's gallery exhibition in 1979.

Offered alongside Howard Hodgkin's House On Hand Painted Cushion is Khakhar's portrait of his friend and mentor, in watercolour which is estimate at £8,000-12,000. Untitled (Portrait of Howard Hodgkin), created circa 1984, comes from filmmakers Nick Gifford and his wife, Judy Marie, who were commissioned to create films on both the artists, and to whom Khakhar had gifted this work, following his stay with them in their London home in 1984. These particular works complement our sale of Howard Hodgkin's personal collection, taking place at Sotheby's the day before on 24 October, which will feature Khakar's iconic painting De-Luxe Tailors.

Manjit Bawa, Untitled (Figure with Bull), oil on canvas, 1997 Estimate: £350,000-500,000

The front cover lot is Manjit Bawa's exquisite Figure with Bull, painted in 1997. Bawa's luminous paintings are an exploration of form and colour, through which Bawa has established himself as one of India's most original artists. Often inspired by icons and myths, his subjects represent the dual polarities of the human and

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animal world. Like most of his work, he places his figures against a solid coloured background thus focusing the viewer's attention solely on the isolated subjects, in a manner inspired by Indian miniature painting. This work has been widely published and exhibited at Lalit Kala Akademi and comes from an English collector based in Hong Kong.

Jehangir Sabavala, Sentinel Trees, oil on canvas, 1967 Estimate: £200,000-300,000

Jehangir Sabavala's Sentinel Trees exemplifies the artist's perspectival inventiveness in creating tranquil and mysterious spaces with remarkable depth and tactile sentiment. Born in 1922 into one of the most influential families of Raj-Era Bombay, Sabavala rose to prominence as a painter in the early 1950s during which European Modernism was sweeping across the international art scene

and imparting an avant-garde zeal and fervor upon the Indian subcontinent. This current work comes from the Collection of Giancarlo and Simonetta Guglielmino, Italians who were part of Sabavala's circle of friends during their stay in Bombay where Giancarlo Guglielmino served as Managing Director of CEAT India.

Maqbool Fida Husain, Untitled (Nayika), oil on canvas, circa 1950s Estimate: £100,000-150,000

Painted in the 1950s, Untitled (Nayika) by acclaimed modern Indian painter Maqbool Fida Husain is a unique example of the artist's masterly synthesis of varying classical forms, brought together on one stage. In 1948, Husain visited the India Independence Exhibition with Francis Newton Souza and was struck by the classical Indian sculpture and traditional miniature painting from the Rajput and Pahari courts. In the two vibrantly painted nayikas in the foreground of the work, we see the cheerful palette and Ashta-Nayika theme of Basholi paintings as well as the sculpted forms of Gupta and Mathura sculptures. This current work encapsulates a time which is considered the apex of Husain's career when his masterpieces, Between the Spider and the Lamp, 1956, Pagan Mother, 1956 and Zameen, 1955, were universally celebrated for the depiction of rural life and folk tradition.

Sayed Haider Raza, Untitled (Naga), acrylic on canvas, 1982 Estimate: £100,000-150,000

The sale will also feature a strong group of works by Sayed Haider Raza, including six from the Norwegian collector, Per Elias Rosenlund, a close friend of the artist. Dating from the early 1980s - a seminal period in the artist's oeuvre - the works on offer demonstrate the artist's unmistakable and easily distinguishable use of blazing, bold colours. Untitled (Naga), is executed in vibrant tones of yellow, crimson, green, black, and brown - the colours of India and of Raza's childhood. The piece was painted during the phase when the artist was on the cusp of transitioning from abstract expressionism to rigid geometric compositions. Dominated by colour but framed within two horizontal black bands, one can observe the emergence of the ubiquitous 'Bindu' - considered the force that

controls the sacred order of the universe, which became a central theme in Raza's later work.

Sayed Haider Raza, Polarité, acrylic on canvas, 1994 Estimate: £150,000-200,000

Coming from a Swiss collection, Polarité, executed by Raza in 1994 is an excellent example of Raza's depiction of the bindu and illustrates the artist's distinctive aesthetic vocabulary in the mid-1990s. In Polarité a large and imposing lingam framed by a red border dominates the left side. In Indian metaphysics the lingam is closely related to the symbol of Shiva, the creative principle and the giver of the seed of life. Opposed to that, Raza pairs a smaller bindu characterised by energetic concentric rings with a blue downwards facing triangle, a symbol epitomising the feminine principle. This painting was amongst the first works to ever appear in an international

auction context, dating back to 1995.

Prabhakar Barwe, Circular Oneness, enamel paint on canvas, 1994 Estimate: £30,000-50,000

Circular Oneness, executed by Prabhakar Barwe in 1994, brings a sense of almost zen-like perfection to Barwe's work. This large scale painting is a quiet masterpiece, which portrays the organized chaos of everyday life by placing isolated incongruous objects, into an enigmatic composition. Barwe is receiving renewed interest by scholars and curators in the field, and is a senior artist who is gaining greater recognition in the market.

Mahadev Visvanath Dhurandhar, Twenty Watercolours Depicting Scenes of Bombay, circa 1900

Estimate: £20,000-30,000

The sale will also include a beautiful selection of watercolours depicting Bombay at the turn of the 20th century. Twenty works by Mahadev Visvanath Dhurandhar which capture

poignant moments of everyday life in Bombay in intricate detail will be offered within the sale. Recently discovered in an envelope in a drawer in rural England and having been untouched for more than 50 years, these watercolours are in exceptional condition. These evocative works are essentially a snapshot in time bridging the era from company school to modern India.