Emerging Markets
0September 26, 2011
The Rumor Machine Whirls Around Husains
It’s not really fair to the heirs of MF Husain to spread gossip about the estate. After all, the great Indian painter divided his property long before his death and put his estate in the hands of his younger children. But The Asian Age says there have been persistent rumors about Husain’s “Maria Collection” a large body of work that the family says was sold before the artist’s death but others have claimed are on the market right now:
Renu Modi, director, Gallery Espace, [says] “Husain called me personally a year ago and informed me that he had sold off all the 75 paintings in the Maria collection to somebody in London. I was trying to find a buyer for it here. Unless the deal didn’t come through, the paintings aren’t in the market.”
A prominent art curator who doesn’t wish to be named says, “The stakes are really high, so there will be problems aplenty in distributing his wealth. Husain was one of the most expensive Indian artists and it’s not just the Maria collection, there are many such paintings which Husain gave away to people. He was working on several projects, which he never finished. And those who had commissioned those works had paid him huge amounts. Now, they want their money back, but the family doesn’t have enough works left to pay them.”
Husains Deny Rift, Money Squabbles (The Asian Age)
Artists
0September 16, 2011
Top Indian Art Performers in New York
Bloomberg picked the top performing Indian lots from this week’s sales in New York:
- A private U.S. buyer paid the top price of $1.1 million for Husain’s oil painting “Sprinkling Horses.”
- Raja Ravi Varma’s picture of a “Himalayan Beauty” went to a private European buyer for $266,500, 78 percent more than its high estimate, Sotheby’s said.
- “The Cobweb Cloud” by Jehangir Sabavala, whose pictures feature subdued tones and dreamy landscapes, sold for $266,500 at Sotheby’s.
- Syed Haider Raza’s abstract work “Eglise” sold for $362,500 at the Sotheby’s sale.
Indian Paintings Sell for $9.7 Million at Christie’s, Sotheby’s (Bloomberg)
Auction Results
0September 14, 2011
Christie’s S. Asian Mod + Cont = $7.375m
Christie’s held their Indian Modern and Contemporary sale yesterday in the midst of many questions about the fate of Maqbool Fida Husain’s market.
The auction house’s head of Asian art, Hugo Weihe, feels his house vindicated the master who died earlier this year with a bit of a Husain-a-palooza:
“As a tribute to the late Maqbool Fida Husain, we were thrilled to have offered 13 modern works by him, all of which were 100% sold totaling $4.2 million. Husain’s paintings achieved eight out of the top ten lots, a testament to the great master.”
Artists
0September 13, 2011
Testing the Husain Market’s Strength
The Wall Street Journal’s India Real Time blog asks whether this week will be an important test for MF Husain’s market in the wake of the Indian master’s death earlier this year. There are several works for sale at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York as well as on Saffronart online next week. However, one of the top works Sprinkling Horses, just made $1.142m at Christie’s. Another, Yatra was bid well above the high estimate to sell for $932,500. But Three Graces was estimated at between $400,00o and $750,000 but sold for near the lows at $482,500.
Here’s IRT’s rationale for the re-evaluation of the prolific painter’s work and the price differentials:
Mumbai-based curator and art critic Ranjit Hoskote says we are likely to see a critical reappraisal of Mr. Husain, starting from now. This could hurt the value of a lot of his weaker work.
He pointed at the cold reception Mr. Husain’s paintings often receive in a non-Indian context, where his work has struggled to gain the same appeal as it does in the Subcontinent or among people of Indian origin. “Part of the reason is that they don’t understand post-colonial Indian art,” the other is whether his art “can really speak for itself,” Mr. Hoskote said. “And I’m not sure it can.”
While he praised some of Mr. Husain’s earlier work, Mr. Hoskote felt that “there is a lot that is, frankly, flimsy.” After the artist’s death, he sees a greater logic of refinement taking hold among Mr. Husain’s collector base. Mr. Hoskote said Mr. Husain was more remarkable as a cultural phenomenon, for his ability to “respond to the slightest tremor in the Indian public sphere,” during independent India’s crucial formative years. This, Mr. Hoskote reckons, is an important reason buyers were drawn to his work. But this may change.
“People who collected Husain were in some ways collecting the aura of Husain… people were buying into his legend,” said Mr. Hoskote, who recently curated the Indian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. “But as the years pass we’ll get a bit more hardnosed about the divergence between his actual works of art, which may be seen in a more pragmatic light, and his legend, which will grow in stature.”
MF Husain’s Work Faces Major Market Test (India Real Time/Wall Street Journal)
