From rxpgnews.com
Auction for Kolkata Museum of Modern Art
By IANS,
May 9, 2007 - 1:49:06 PM
Kolkata, May 9 - Kolkata will now have its own modern art museum. Auction giants Sotheby's will hold a benefit sale in New York to support the mega art project.
The auction for the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art - will be held July 17. On sale will be modern and contemporary Indian art works.
Important works including paintings, sculptures and photographs by Tyeb Mehta, Jehangir Sabavala, Somnath Hore, Sakti Burman, Ram Kumar, F.N Souza, Akbar Padamsee, Jogen Chowdhury, Ganesh Pyne, Arpita Singh, Rameshwar Broota, Paresh Maity, Subodh Gupta, Chintan Upadhyay, Baiju Parthan and Dayanita Singh among others will be part of the auction highlights.
The offering of around 95 lots is estimated to bring in between Rs.100 million and Rs.140 million.
This is the first time that over 70 artists, various galleries, private individuals and an international auction house have come together to support a national art museum in India.
KMOMA, a joint venture between the government of West Bengal and the private sector, will primarily house works of visual art, along with photography, cinema, design and architecture.
The mission of the museum is to collect, preserve and exhibit national and international works of fine art from the 18th century to contemporary art.
To be designed by an international architect, KMOMA will have four major sections: National Galleries, Western Galleries, Far Eastern Galleries and a large academic wing to promote research, conservation and curatorial practices.
Spread over 10 acres in Rajarhat, Kolkata, the Rs.5 billion project is the first of its kind in India.
Artist Jogen Chowdhury is part of the panel that includes industrialists as well as an exclusive panel of patrons with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee being the chief patron.
Tyeb Mehta's 'Kali Head' -, 1998, will be the cornerstone of the sale given that Kali, the fierce mother goddess, is devoutly worshipped in Kolkata.
In this iconic work, Mehta portrays the ancient Hindu Goddess Kali, the warlike deity embodying destruction, in an astonishingly modern manner - potbellied with large breasts, her arms flailing, and her mouth a terrifying gorgeous gash of white. Mehta refers to it as a 'fantastic primordial image' - the destroyer of evil and protector of humankind.
Legendary sculptor Somnath Hore had donated an exquisite bronze work 'Wounds' - for the KMOMA benefit auction before his death.
The selection includes J. Sabavala's important work 'The Chhortens' -, a square oil and acrylic on canvas depicting wayside reliquaries nestling at the feet of a high snow-clad massif. It maintains the austerity of colour and structure that the subject evokes. Introspective and spiritual, the painting is haunted by nostalgia, for moments once possessed and now lost.
Unlike Sabavala's serene work, Arpita Singh's 'Classified File' -, is a whimsical composition where comic and tragic become interchangeable as Singh comments on our programmed urban existence, the mindless obsession with creation of wealth and prevalence of social injustice.
Other highlights include an important early paper drawing 'Study of a Girl' - by Jogen Chowdhury; Sakti Burman's exceptional 'Giraf in Liberty', a dream-like dense network of varied tones and textures; Akbar Padamsee's contemplative 'Couple'; and Rameshwar Broota's stark monochromatic canvas commenting on violence, the wounded, and human degradation.
The selection also offers works by young contemporary Indian artists such as Subodh Gupta's shiny bronze and chrome sculpture of cosmetic items unveiling the complexities of a consumer-driven, globalising society; a large black and white abstract triptych by Kingshuk Sarkar; and works by Jaya Ganguly, Chintan Upadhyay, Bose Krishnamachari and T.V. Santosh.
Baiju Parthan's 'Metronome and Yield' - deals with the artist's multiple engagements with mass media, counterculture, the internet, mythological symbols, and new age spirituality.
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