Tyeb Mehta painting sold at 11 crore rupees

Modernist Tyeb Mehta’s painting was sold at the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale in Sotheby’s for a whooping Rs. 11 cr. The Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale marked the beginning of Sotheby’s Indian and Islamic Week, which will see three separate auctions dedicated to the works of established artists from the Indian sub-continent and the Islamic world.
The blue painting was brought for a price far higher than its pre-auction estimate by an anonymous bidder. The painting is thought to be an important transitional work of Mehta’s, and a departure from his pet themes of angst and suffering. The depiction of the female body is believed to be inspired from the works of international artists such as Barnett Newman, Kazimir Malevich and Henri Matisse.

Tyeb Mehta

Tyeb Mehta was born in 1925 in Gujarat. He studied at the J.J.School of Art. He is one of the post-colonial group of artists in India. He was a part of the renowned Bombay Progressive Artist’s Group which is a grouping of influential modern Indian artists post-1947 who are known for their unique collection of work with certain similar characteristics. His work belonged to the Modernism school of painting. He is a Padma Bhushan awardee. Mehta’s work was the first by a contemporary Indian artist to be sold for over a million dollars. One of his later paintings, ‘Celebration’, sold for Rs. 15 mn at a Christie’s auction in 2002. This set the record for the highest sale amount for an Indian painting at an international auction. He died in 2009 in Mumbai. Click Here to read brief Biography of  Tyeb Mehta

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2014