New Delhi- Fourteen years after his death, artist MF Husain has made history. His 1954 work ‘Untitled’ (Gram Yatra) fetched Rs 118 crores at a sale by the auction house Christie’s on Wednesday; this is the highest ever price commanded by an Indian artist at an auction ever. In 2023, Amrita Sher-Gil’s ‘The Story Teller’ (1937) had sold for a stupendous Rs 61.8 crore at a Saffronart sale, then becoming the highest value work of Indian art sold at an auction worldwide
Fourteen feet wide and piecing together 13 vignettes of rural Indian life, Husain’s work is monumental in scale. An example of a newly Independent India on the cusp of change, it is also a reflection of the artist’s dynamic modernism, making it an important milestone in Indian art.
The oil on canvas work was painted in 1954 and was exhibited at a joint exhibition he had with Krishen Khanna at All India Fine Arts & Crafts Society. That very year, it was acquired by Leon Elias Volodarsky, a Norwegian general surgeon and private art collector, who was heading a World Health Organization team posted in Delhi to establish a thoracic surgery training center. He had bequeathed it to Oslo University Hospital in 1964, which is why the painting has remained unseen for the last 70 years. The hospital put it up for sale this year and the proceeds would support the training of future generations of doctors at the institution.
“Drawing from the tradition of Indian miniature painting, the present painting features a rich colour palette and framed vignettes. Each of the 13 scenes offers a glimpse into village life, reflecting key themes that recur throughout Husain’s visual lexicon. Women play a central role within these vignettes — milking cows, milling grain, riding carts and caring for children — symbolising fertility, creation, and renewal. The depictions extend beyond the domestic sphere, resonating with the broader narrative of a newly independent India striving to define itself,” Candace Wetmore from Christie’s writes on the website. She says that the auction house’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art team first learned of the painting over a decade ago when they received photographs of it hanging at Oslo University Hospital. “Our jaws dropped — we knew we had to see it in person,” she quotes.
Before the auction, ‘Gram Yatra’ travelled to Delhi for pre-sale viewing.
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