NEW YORK
hristie’s annual live sale of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art in New York (September 22) moved 74 lots for a USD 7.83 million haul, with multiple new-to-auction pieces far outstripping their estimates. Among them, Jehangir Sabavala’s USD 1.59 million (1965), a meter-high oil canvas of four robed figures waiting on shore, more than tripled the USD 500,000 high estimate. The square-format (c. 1967) by Bhupen Khakhar—whose distinctive, bright-hued paintings have gained market traction in recent years—sold for USD 990,000 against estimates of USD 350,000–500,000. The Nobel-winning cultural luminary Rabindranath Tagore was represented by his moody, mixed-media (c. early 1930s), which more than tripled the USD 180,000 high estimate to fetch USD 637,500. Revered modernist Tyeb Mehta’s russet oil-on-board (1961) was purchased for USD 400,000, above a (c. 2000s), a vivid acrylic rendering of dancers, a royal couple, and other figures, made USD 375,000 against a USD 200,000 high estimate, although the more tonally somber (c. 1990s), portraying his deceased grandfather and mother, fell short of its USD 120,000 high estimate to sell for USD 106,250. Revered but less conspicuous at auction, Abdur Rahman Chughtai and Anwar Jalal Shemza both outdid expectations: the former’s fresh-to-market watercolor (c. 1930s) and the latter’s intricate oil-on-board (1960) respectively achieved USD 250,000 and USD 231,250, several times their USD 50,000 high estimate.
