20th May 2005

Sold: A small Tyeb goes for Rs 1 crore

Mumbai/Delhi: He likes to keep a low profile, but his stunning strokes ensure repeated brushes with the limelight. Now, Tyeb Mehta is back in the news with 'Kali'' a dramatic, disturbing work depicting the Goddess with a gouged mouth 'selling for Rs 1 crore. The figure was bid at Indian auction house Saffronart's online auction, which concluded last week. The work was in the possession of a New York gallery. Saffronart has not disclosed the name of the buyer.

The 80-year-old Mumbai artist, who has not been in very good health, already holds the record for the highest price an Indian painting has ever sold for in a public auction. His triptych 'Celebration', an expanse of shrouded figures, had sold at Christie's for Rs 1.5 crore in 2002. A complete opposite in terms of size, 'Kali' is small acrylic on canvas, 30x24 inches, painted in 1997. A crore for such a small painting sets a benchmark for Indian masters.

Not bad for somebody who once wanted to be a filmmaker and made a film in 1970, 'Koodal', which won the Filmfare Critics Award. Cinema's loss has proved to be art's gain. Friend M F Husain exults, 'The language of painting he has evolved is very powerful. I think even the crore this painting has sold for is less.''

Mehta has long been fascinated with Kali. In Ramchandra Gandhi's 'Swaraj', he says: 'I have always been attracted to the Mother Goddess. At Shanti Niketan, I could feel Kali's presence everywhere.''

His experience in a Mumbai abbatoir also shows in recurrent themes of mutilation and exploitation in his work.

'Kali' is third most expensive painting

Mumbai: Tyeb Mehta's 'Kali' has become the third most expensive Indian painting to be sold at an auction'the second being Raza's Rajputana bindu which sold for Rs 1.1 crore. 'It is indeed most remarkable that a single painting by an Indian artist has breached the Rs 1-crore mark. In fact, we find that a journey that we started in 2002 with the auction of Celebration for a stunning first-time hammer price of Rs 1.50 crore has actually gained momentum,'' said Ashok Sen, art curator, Times of India Group. 'Indian artists can now look forward to higher valuations for their works,'' he said.

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