Starting July 20, online art auction house Saffronart will host a 24-hour auction titled 99 Modern Paperworks (here’s how to bid) featuring paintings by a host of bigwig modernists including Tyeb Mehta, V.S. Gaitonde, and Arpita Sing. Saffronart editor Nishad Avari canvases for the art you should add to cart.

VS Gaitonde
Untitled
1962
Ink on paper
21 x 29.5 in
Signed in Devnagari and dated in English (center right)

Estimate
$30,000 - 40,000 (Rs 13,20,000 - 17,60,000)

One of Gaitonde's early ink paintings on paper, this is a sublime work inspired by Zen philosophy and the artist’s contemplation of the horizon from the gardens of his studio at the Bhulabhai Desai Institute in Mumbai, where each element seems to alternately emerge into being and evaporate.


Francis Newton Souza
Untitled
1956
Mixed media on paper
21.5 x 14.5 in
Signed and dated in English (upper left)

Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000 (Rs 8,80,000 - 13,20,000)

A vivid mixed media portrait on paper, this work represents the artist’s powerful figurative oeuvre that sought to unmask the hypocritical practices of individuals and institutions in positions of power. The vacant eyes placed high on the forehead, the cross-hatches underlining the ruggedness of the face, and the stiff demeanor of this suited man are characteristic of Souza’s mockery of the powerful and moneyed classes from this period.

Nasreen Mohamedi
Untitled
Pencil on graph paper
8 x 11 in

Estimate
$5,000 - 7,000 )Rs 2,20,000 - 3,08,000)

This auction offers collectors a rare chance to acquire two of Nasreen Mohamedi’s spare, minimalist drawings. Mohamedi was a pioneer, choosing to develop a completely abstract idiom in a time when almost all her contemporaries engaged with the representational and narrative.

Tyeb Mehta
Untitled
1993
Crayon on paper
25 x 19.5 in
Signed and dated in English (upper right)

Estimate
$30,000 - 40,000 (Rs 13,20,000 - 17,60,000)

Drawing from the legend of Icarus, Mehta’s falling figure speaks of human folly, deep distress and existential crisis. The androgynous figure careening downwards in endless freefall communicates the significant role that personal and public violence plays in shaping the contemporary human experience.

Krishen Khanna
Garhi
Charcoal on paper
13.5 x 19 in
Signed in English (lower left)

Estimate
$2,000 - 3,000 (Rs 88,000 - 1,32,000)


Recalling the years Krishen Khanna spent in his Garhi Village studio in Delhi, this work is teeming with life and activity. All of the artist’s most familiar subjects have a place here, including uniformed bandwallahs, watermelon chomping children, tea-stall owners, and even stray dogs. The co-occurrence of these figures in the same work, in addition to being suggestive of introspection and cathartic expression, also illuminates the tie that binds them all – Khanna’s longstanding concern for the subaltern, the common man, and his burdens.

Ram Kumar
Untitled
Charcoal and ink on paper
4.5 x 6.5 in
Signed in Devnagari (lower right)

Estimate
$1,500 - 2,000 (Rs 66,000 - 88,000)

An early charcoal and ink drawing, this work represents a transitional period in Ram Kumar’s career, bridging the artist's early austere and despondent cityscapes with the more abstract landscapes he painted in the following decades. This work is also important as it marks one of the artist’s first experiences of the holy city of Banaras, which came to have a deep impact on his work.