VS Gaitonde's Painting Sells As One Of Most Expensive Indian Artworks At ₹ 39.98 Crore

VS Gaitonde's Painting Sells As One Of Most Expensive Indian Artworks At ₹ 39.98 Crore

The green oil painting representing the artist's precise, deliberate technique, became one of the top three most expensive works by Mr Gaitonde to be sold in India.

Breaking the abstractionist master’s own previous record set in September 2020 — when an untitled 1974 oil-on-canvas by him sold for Rs 36.8 crore at an auction by Pundole’s — the recent sale also brought cheer for the art market recovering from the implications of the global pandemic.
“The success of our Spring Live Auction — led by a masterpiece by V S Gaitonde, which achieved a world record for the artist as well as a work of Indian art sold on auction anywhere in the world — sets a strong and optimistic precedent for the year ahead,” said Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and Co-Founder of Saffronart, one of India’s first online art auction houses.

Sharing her memories of growing up with the work that was purchased when she was two years old, in a video shared by Saffronart, Kathak dancer and choreographer Aditi Mangaldas said, “We had many interesting people coming to our homes. The painting was a silent but an extremely beautiful and powerful spectator of all these happenings in our family, the ups and downs in our lives. It’s something that informed our aesthetic landscape while I was growing up in Ahme­da­bad…When I was exploring my own passion for dance, it intrigued me as to what goes into an artist’s mind, what is the transformation, the thought… It has given us joy.”

A 1961 oil painting by noted painter VS Gaitonde went under the hammer at the Saffronart Spring Live Auction for a record ₹39.98 crore, the highest an Indian art has ever fetched at an auction across the world.

The untitled painting, which went under the hammer on March 11 evening, was a part of the collection of Aditi Mangaldas and Aditya Mangaldas, children of industrialist Harshvadan Mangaldas and his wife Devyani who’ve had it at their Ahmedabad home for four decades.

It broke the master painter’s own 2020 record when another of his untitled oil-on-canvas made in 1974 was sold for ₹36.8 crore at an auction by Pundole’s.

The two sales reflected a healing art market from the pandemic woes.

Saffronart is an Indian online art auction house. Its co-founder and CEO Dinesh Vazirani said the sale of Gaitonde’s masterpiece and the success of the Spring Live Auction sets a strong and optimistic precedent for the year ahead.

Aditi Mangaldas, a choreographer, shared her memories of growing up with the work and called it a “silent but an extremely beautiful and powerful spectator of all these happenings in our family, the ups and downs in our lives,” according to a The Indian Express report.

Amrita Sher-Gil: Untitled

Sold For: Rs 18,28,42,830 (Rs 18.2 crore)

About the painting: Given by the artist to her cousin-niece and husband during Sher-Gil’s visit to Europe circa 1933. These relatives were part of Ervin Baktay’s branch of the family. The painting was in the possession of the family and was acquired from them by the current owner.

V S Gaitonde: Untitled

Sold For: Rs 18,15,00,000 (Rs 18.1 crore)

About the painting: The 1982 painting, by Gaitonde was bought by an anonymous bidder for nearly double its low estimate at the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale.

Tyeb Mehta: 'Falling Bull'

Sold For: Rs 17,54,25,000 (Rs 17.54 crore)

About the painting: The painting from 1999, is a virtuosic celebration of the iconic subjects and symbols that embody the oeuvre of this modern master. The trussed falling bull is the protagonist set upon a rickshaw, seemingly spiralling out of control towards cataclysm. The trussed bulls of the Mumbai's slaughterhouses futilely struggle, powerless in the face of the inevitable, and exemplify for Mehta the conditions of indignity and constriction in Indian everyday life. This painting is a monument to this sentiment, the animal struggling and contorted on a rickshaw, caught in a crash.

Amrita Sher-Gil: Untitled-Self Portrait

Sold For: Rs 17,51,24,620 (Rs 17.51 crore)

About the painting: This self-portrait from 1931 is one of Sher-Gil’s undiscovered paintings, never before seen or exhibited publicly. It remained in France from the time it was painted. It was recently exhibited first in New York, at Christie’s, and then London for its sale preview and auction. This self-portrait is the only painting known among the artist's 19 previously documented self-portraits in which the artist is in complete profile and avoiding any interaction with the viewer.

Amrita Sher Gil: Untitled (Self Portrait)

Sold For: Rs 17,27,66,405 (Rs 17.2 crore)

About the painting: In this painting, there are also unmissable similarities to the work of Frida Kahlo, with its dominant frontal pose, strong palette and emphasis on the features. Just like her art, Amrita’s life bore numerous parallels to that of Kahlo. For one, the two were women artists of Hungarian descent working within a male dominated Modernist movement. They were rebellious characters who chose to express their social, political and intellectual beliefs through their art.

Francis Newton Souza: 'Man and Woman Laughing'

Sold For: Rs 16,84,00,000 (Rs 16.8 crore)