Raza: ‘French’ delight

Calcutta, March 30: Prices of Indian contemporary art touched a new high in New York yesterday with Tapovan, a “French” period landscape by Paris-based Raza, being snapped up for a never-before $1.5 million (about Rs 6.6 crore) at a Sotheby’s sale of Indian art.

The painting had been done way back in 1972 when, sources said, a work by Raza would never have fetched Rs 1 lakh.

This means, his prices have appreciated several hundred times in a little over 30 years ? indicating how the art mart is closely linked with the booming Indian economy, as had happened earlier with Southeast Asian art.

Falling figure with bird, a painting by Mumbai-based Tyeb Mehta, who has already set a record, went for $1.25 million. The late Swaminathan fetched $800,000, Akbar Padamsee $716,000, Ramkumar $542,000, Souza $508,000 and Husain $464,000.

It was, as Raza said over the phone from Paris, as if “the world is recognising? that Indian contemporary art is the most vital expression of art” anywhere. Raza is best known for his works where the Bindu forms the centrepiece.

Of the Calcutta painters, Bikash Bhattacharjee went for $96,000, Jogen Chowdhury $84,000, Chittrovanu Mazumdar $72,000, Ganesh Haloi $60,000, Paresh Maity $33,000, and Jamini Roy $36,000.

A total of 213 works went under the hammer, of which 148 are contemporary. The sale grossed $13.6 million, with contemporary art accounting for about $10 million.

“Even two years ago, it would have been the other way round. In a globalised world, not only NRIs and Indian businessmen but foreigners, too, are going in for Indian art. Once the Indian rupee becomes fully convertible, things are expected to be even better,” said Calcutta-based art dealer Prakash Kejriwal.

Asked to comment on the sale results, Raza said: “I feel I have every reason to be happy for myself, for Indian contemporary art and for the person who sold it.”

While Raza readily admitted that art was being viewed more as an investment today, he stressed that the heights reached of late were the result of “fundamental pictorial research of great significance” covering nearly a century.

Hence, the ascendance of the Progressive Artists Group, of which he was a member, and artists like K.G. Subramanyan and Jogen Chowdhury in Bengal. It was the triumph of the Indian philosophy of art.