Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art

Live Auction: 29 September 2020 • 2:00 PM BST • London

C ontinuing the commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sales at Sotheby’s worldwide, this auction features art by some of South Asia’s leading modernists, rarer and lesser known artists that have been previously underrepresented, as well as leading contemporary artists.

Highlights include property from the Bhupen Khakhar estate, as well as the collections of Gunnar and Ingar Hansen, renowned art critic George Butcher and design genius, Patwant Singh. A tribute to the unique insight of these collectors who spent their lives cultivating and supporting art, good taste, and joie de vivre, Sotheby’s is pleased to present these rare treasures, most unseen for at least a generation.

A confluence of modernity and tradition, the everyday and the heroic, the miniature and the immense, Pakistan is a rich and fertile space for artistic development, both locally and globally. The growing interest in art from Pakistan is not a mere spark of curiosity but the consequence of a sustained appreciation of its culture, capable of withstanding the test of time. The group of artists featured in Sotheby’s sale of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art represent the tremendous artistic energy that has developed over the years.

Indian Contemporary art often reflects on the double-edged nature of globalisation, and how it impacts upon the daily grind of urban life. Highlighting social, economic and political implications, many artists develop and discover what it means to live in the world today.

Painted circa 1971, around three years after Bhupen Khakhar had debuted as a painter, Portrait of Shri Shankerbhai V. Patel Near Red Fort is a singularly extraordinary chef-d'œuvre. The painting reveals both peerless formal execution and profound emotional depth, and is of crucial significance within Khakhar’s inimitable body of work.

Artist

Bhupen Khakhar

The subject of the present work is Shankerbhai Patel, Khakhar’s utterly devoted friend. Such was the importance of Shankerbhai to Khakhar, that the artist immortalised him in some of his most important paintings: the present lot; American Survey Officer, an earlier painting from 1969; and Man on Bed, a slightly later work. Khakhar’s unflinching devotion to Shankerbhai is an indication as to why Portrait of Shri Shankerbhai V. Patel Near Red Fort would remain in the artist’s collection throughout his life, occupying pride of place in the artist’s home in Baroda.