An uncommon double-sided oil on board painting by renowned artist Ram Kumar may be one of the 45 works that will cross under the hammer at Mumbai-based public sale house Prinsep’s upcoming spring Modern Art Auction.
The online sale may be held on April 24-25.
Kumar’s work offering of his artwork — “Family” (1960) and “Mazes of the Mind” (1961), on either side of the board, is predicted at Rs 1.5-3 crore.
“The work is of historical significance as it’s a double-sided work that marks a transition inside the artist’s practice from his early figurative artwork to his later abstract section,” the public sale residence said in a statement on Friday.
While “Family” depicts a figurative scene of two adults protectively nurturing a baby, “Mazes of the Mind,” presumed to be painted immediately afterward, blends the figurative with an abstract fashion more familiar in Kumar’s later works.
An early Untitled (Goan Village) landscape using Francis Newton Souza, estimated at Rs 40-50 lakh, will also be part of the sale.
Painted in 1948, rapidly after Souza’s expulsion from the J J School of Art in Bombay, the work takes a suggestion from the artist’s Goan roots, reflecting his ambitious use of color and line. The artist painted it 12 months after the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group came into shape, of which Souza became a founding member.
“The work suggests factors of what the PAG wanted to paint for a ‘New India’ and Souza’s personal tackle current Indian artwork,” Princeps stated.
Also on offer may be present-day Indian artist Manu Parekh’s “CRY.”
In their work, he refers back to the Bhagalpur blindings in Bihar in 1979 and 1980, evoking a debate around capital punishment and forcing an essential perception into the human condition.
It is expected at Rs 15-20 lakh.
The auction residence, with this sale, is likewise marking its access into the medium of images.
Jyoti Bhatt’s Untitled (a hard and fast of 10 snapshots of diverse artists) is expected to fetch Rs eight-10 lakh.
The collection is a strong example of Bhatt’s direct and casual style. It is depicted among the icons of Indian modernism, which includes M.F. Husain, Nasreen Mohamedi, Himmat Shah, and Krishen Khanna.
Other artists featured within the sale will consist of Somnath Hore, V S Gaitonde, M F Husain, Zarina Hashmi, and photographers like Raghu Rai and Vivan Sundaram.
Before going online, the works will be up for viewing at the Taj Art Gallery in Mumbai on April 20-21.
