A strong selection of works by major South Asian artists, seen for the first time on the market, heads Bonhams annual summer sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian art on 7th June in New Bond Street, London. The sale includes works by well-known Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan artists such as M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, Jamini Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, Avinash Chandra, F.N. Souza , B. Prabha, George Keyt, Sadequain, Jamil Naqsh and A. R. Chughtai sourced from private collections in Europe and the USA. The auction will also present the largest group of works by Pakistani masters to ever come under the hammer at an international auction.
Gulgee’s 1965 work titled Buzkashi, which depicts Afghanistan’s national sport, is one of the highlights of this section. Works in the sale by Faiza Butt, Khadim Ali and Anwar Saeed represent a contemporary generation of Pakistani artists. Faiza Butt and Anwar Saeed both exhibited in Hanging Fire, Contemporary Art From Pakistan at Asia Society in New York, the catalogue for which featured a work by Faiza Butt on the cover. Meanwhile, Khadim Ali was selected to show his work in East-West Divan at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
These artists have also participated in art fairs such as Art Dubai, The Indian Art Summit and the International Hong Kong Art Fair. Another work in the sale is by the renowned Indian artist M.F. Husain titled The Blue Lady is from the private UK collection of John Hay. The work was acquired from Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi in the mid 1950s.
