Rare MF, Tyeb works to be sold
Extremely rare works by three of India’s greatest contemporary artists — Tyeb Mehta, Maqbool Fida Husain and Sayed Haider Raza — will appear on the auction circuit for the first time and are set to fetch record prices at Bonhams’ Indian and Islamic sale in London on Tuesday.
“All three artists were involved in establishing the Bombay Progressive’s Artist Group back in 1947. The group consisted of many major artists such as Francis Newton Souza and S.K. Bakre, both featured in this sale. The goal for this group of artists was to persuade an avant-garde approach to art away from the nationalistic and traditional style of the Bengal School of Art,” a Bonhams spokesperson explained. Mehta’s untitled oil on canvas, signed and dated 1978, is estimated to sell for between £400,000 and £600,000. This work, part of the Diagonal series, comes from a private collection and was acquired directly from the artist in Mumbai in 1980. “It has never been shown to the public or been published, it is completely fresh to the market. A work from the Diagonal series has not been in auction since 2007,” the spokesperson added. This work from 1978 is an early and powerful example of what would soon be recognised as Mehta’s mature style. Husain’s untitled 1970 oil on canvas is estimated to sell between £150,000 and £250,000. It comes from a private collection acquired in 1970 from Chawla Art Gallery, formerly known as Geeta Gallery, in the Oberoi Hotel in Delhi. His contemporary Raza’s untitled acrylic on canvas, signed and dated 1987, is estimated to go under the hammer at a guide price set between £90,000 and £130,000.
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