Osian's Auction Catalogue Creative India Series 1 Bengal | December 2011

Creative India BENGAL | The Artists and Printmakers of the ‘Picturesque’ 15 14 TaBle 2 Sale of Bengal-based artists by various auction houses Yet the fact remains that it shouldn’t have to take over 20 years to simply institutionalize over 100 years of creativity into a fair financial framework, especially as late as 2011. Yet, you can already see that the market is reacting to the injustice (Please refer to graph 2) as the gap between the ‘Top 12’ and the ‘Select 12 Bengal Masters’ has narrowed radically during 2006-2011. gRaPH 2 Comparison of average lot Price between the ‘Top 12’ and the Select 12 Bengal Masters This trend will continue. One has only to survey the status of the market leaders in 1990, 2000 and 2010 (Please refer to Table 3) to see how within a decade they change as public understanding of history improves. all art pricing trends move implicitly and fundamentally towards making historical significance the very bedrock of long-term pricing. There has never been an alternative in any country at any point in history to this process. Short-term artists of fashion are unsustainable, though a few do become genuine long- term masters. The quicker India truly understands and starts respecting historical credibility and all the parameters which constitute such, the swifter she will be able to build credible domestic and international markets for her cultural artifacts and heritage. Artist Bonhams Christie’s Osian’s Saffron Art Sotheby’s Others# Total Osians’ % Baij, Ramkinkar 1 12 3 16 75% Bose, nandalal 2 2 9 3 5 21 43% Chittaprosad 27 1 28 96% Hore, Somnath 3 17 1 3 3 27 63% Karmakar, Prokash 19 3 22 86% Mazumdar, Hemendranath 3 6 0 4 1 14 43% Pyne, ganesh 29 23 20 10 3 85 27% Roy Chowdhury, Devi Prosad 2 5 3 10 50% Roy, Jamini 64 122 19 66 9 280 7% Tagore, abanindranath 12 3 3 18 67% Tagore, gaganendranath 1 2 17 3 2 25 68% Tagore, Rabindranath 11 18 0 29 38% Total 69 162 177 21 110 36 575 31% TaBle 3 Top 12 artists by Total Public Sales in as on 2000 and 2005. as on 31 December 2000 (1987 – 2000) Rank artist liquidity InR Ratio % 1 Husain, Maqbool Fida 106,639,181 16.95 2 Chughtai, abdur Rahman 65,643,682 10.44 3 Pyne, ganesh 32,449,542 5.16 4 Varma, Raja Ravi 31,152,141 4.95 5 Roy, Jamini 27,111,030 4.31 6 Raza, Syed Haider 25,965,536 4.13 7 Mehta,Tyeb 19,027,219 3.02 8 Souza, Francis newton 16,403,765 2.61 9 Menon, anjolie ela 15,737,809 2.50 10 Hebbar, K.K. 15,205,280 2.42 11 Bendre, n.S. 11,470,616 1.82 12 Mazumdar, Hemendranath 10,589,768 1.68 as on 31 December 2005 (1987 – 2005) Rank artist liquidity InR Ratio % 1 Husain, Maqbool Fida 738,049,926 18.21 2 Souza, Francis newton 526,467,006 12.99 3 Raza, Syed Haider 303,711,504 7.49 4 Ramkumar 232,634,985 5.74 5 Mehta,Tyeb 229,916,537 5.67 6 Padamsee, akbar 185,984,058 4.59 7 Swaminathan, Jagdish 104,390,317 2.58 8 Chughtai, a. Rahman 87,158,178 2.15 9 Pyne, ganesh 80,885,346 2.00 10 Varma, Raja Ravi 65,620,064 1.62 11 gaitonde,Vasudeo S. 65,573,089 1.62 12 Roy, Jamini 63,897,148 1.58 Hopefully in the process a boost will be given to the study of history and other related subjects, and so with greater scholarship and documentation India’s general disrespect and playfulness with aspects of history will be marginalized, with a stronger sense of identity emerging irrespective of the different points of view within the historical frameworks. The market must rise now with a new energy, a new rush to document, to share, to educate, to collect, to institutionalize, to exchange on a grand global scale hand in hand with the smallest local need. There is a huge untapped swell of public interest as also many more technological tools, so taking the extra care and fulfilling the extra due diligence is both necessary and possible. Hopefully, this auction will evidence what careful due diligence, study, collection, administration, taste and paperwork can inspire. I do hope you enjoy the auction, coming as it is after a space of almost 18 months. It is our 36th since Osian’s inception in 2000. The Creative India Series 2 on ‘Bombay & Baroda’ is set to follow in January 2012, followed by the ‘Delhi & north India’ auction in March, with the South India Section coming in May 2012. I also hope these sales will give a renewed fillip to the market and that by this time next year we will all begin a confident period of resurgent growth, on more carefully built foundations, with many inter-linked hands nurturing and supporting each other with the genuine togetherness of a family bound by a common purpose. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 2011# 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 78.05 65.92 99.97 52.66 59.74 38.90 12.30 11.79 16.60 9.31 24.78 11.64 all figures are InR in lakhs Top 12 Artists 12 Select Bengal Masters Source: Osian’s eCOn Data Bank & archive [Complete global public auction database, June 1987 – november 2011] Source: Osian’s eCOn Data Bank & archive [Complete global public auction database, June 1987 – november 2011] Source: Osian’s eCOn Data Bank & archive [Complete global public auction database, June 1987 – november 2011]