This collection groups together the artists of India most valued by auction houses, critics and private collectors. On average, their paintings sell for over $500,000.
This list is not exhaustive.
Painting | Artist | Price | Year | References |
---|---|---|---|---|
Untitled | Vasudeo S. Gaitonde | $4.4 million | 2015 | [1] |
Saurashtra | S H Raza | $3.49 million | 2010 | [2] |
Self-Portrait | Amrita Sher-Gil | $2.92 million | 2015 | [3] |
La Terre | S H Raza | $2.54 million | 2008 | [2] |
Tyeb Mehta was an Indian painter, sculptor and film maker. He was part of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group and the first post-colonial generation of artists in India, like John Wilkins who also broke free from the nationalist Bengal school and embraced Modernism instead, with its Post-Impressionist colours, cubist forms and brusque, expressionistic styles.
Kali is a 1997 painting by Indian artist Tyeb Mehta depicting the Hindu goddess Kali with a gouged mouth. Painted in 1997, the work was sold in May 2005 for 10 million Indian rupees at Indian auction house Saffronart's online auction. According to the Times of India, it is a "dramatic, disturbing work".
Amrita Sher-Gil was a Hungarian-Indian painter. She has been called "one of the greatest avant-garde women artists of the early 20th century" and a pioneer in modern Indian art. Drawn to painting from an early age, Sher-Gil started formal lessons at the age of eight. She first gained recognition at the age of 19, for her 1932 oil painting Young Girls. Sher-Gil depicted everyday life of the people in her paintings.
Ram Kumar was an Indian artist and writer who has been described as one of India's foremost abstract painters. He was associated with the Progressive artists' group along with greats like M.F. Hussain, Tyeb Mehta, S.H. Raza. He is said to be one of the first Indian artists to give up figurativism for abstract art. His art commands high prices in the domestic and international market. His work "The Vagabond" fetched $1.1 million at Christie's, setting another world record for the artist. He is also one of the few Indian Modernist masters accomplished in writing as well as painting.
Sayed Haider Raza was an Indian painter who lived and worked in France for most of his career. Born on 22 February 1922 in Kakkaiya, Central Provinces, British India, Raza moved to France in 1950, marrying the French artist Janine Mongillat in 1959. Following her death from cancer in 2002, Raza returned to India in 2010, where he would live until his death on 28 July 2016.
Francis Newton Souza was an artist of modern Indian painting, a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group his style exhibited both decadence and primitivism.
Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, also known as V. S. Gaitonde, was an Indian painter. He was regarded as one of India's foremost abstract painters. Gaitonde received the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1971.
The Progressive Artists' Group (PAG), was a group of modern artists, mainly based in Bombay, from its formation in 1947. Though it lacked any particular style, there might be said to have been a move towards a synthesis of influences from Indian art history together with styles prevalent in Europe and North America during the first half of the 20th century, including Post-Impressionism, Cubism and Expressionism.
Jagdish Swaminathan popularly known as J. Swaminathan was an Indian artist, painter, poet and writer. He played a role in the establishment of the Bharat Bhawan, a multi-art complex in Bhopal, in 1982, and served as the director of its Roopankar Art Museum till 1990. He discovered Jangarh Singh Shyam, a Gond tribal artist of Madhya Pradesh. He was a member of the Communist Party of India.
Neville Tuli is a pioneering author, curator and archivist, active in the field of Arts and Cultural Heritage in India. He studied at the London School of Economics and St. Catherine's College University of Oxford. He lived in England until he returned to India in 1993.
Kekoo Gandhy was an Indian art gallerist, art collector and art connoisseur, who pioneered the promotion of Indian modern art from the 1940s. He established Chemould Frames, a frame manufacturing business in 1941, soon he started displaying works of young modern artists K. H. Ara, S. H. Raza, K. K. Hebbar and M. F. Husain in his showroom windows. This led to gradual rise of modern art movement and post-colonial art in India. Eventually Gallery Chemould, India's first commercial art gallery, was opened in 1963 on the first floor of the Jehangir Art Gallery.
Nirav Deepak Modi is an Indian-born Belgian businessman and criminal who was charged by Interpol and the Government of India for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty including delivery of property, corruption, money laundering, fraud, embezzlement and breach of contract in August 2018. Modi is being investigated as a part of the $2 billion fraud case of Punjab National Bank (PNB). In March 2018, Modi applied for bankruptcy protection in Manhattan, New York. In June 2018, Modi was reported to be in the UK applying for political asylum. In June 2019, Swiss authorities froze a total of US$6 million present in Nirav Modi's Swiss bank accounts along with the assets.
Osian's Connoisseurs of Art was founded by Neville Tuli in the year 2000.
The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is a private modern and contemporary art museum with locations in New Delhi and Noida. Established in 2010, it is India's first private museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art.
The Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF) is a private, not-for-profit organization located in Mumbai, India, with its core interest in promoting the preservation, exhibition, education, and research of post-colonial Indian modern art. The collection is endowed by the personal collection of the late Jehangir Nicholson, comprising over 800 pieces of art across mediums from artists including M. F. Husain, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, S. H. Raza, K. H. Ara. The foundation is currently housed in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), and functions as the modern and contemporary art wing of the museum.
The Story Teller is a 1937 oil painting on canvas by Hungarian-born Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941). In September 2023 it set a record as the highest-priced Indian artwork sold at auction globally. Blending elements of both Pahari and Parisian influences, the painting depicts a group of village women occupied by ordinary tasks such as chewing betel nut and waving a fan, unconcerned about their surroundings, while a baby cow is seen nosing its way among them. A woman is seated on a traditional bed, engaged in storytelling with the women seated on the floor. Set in an open courtyard, a man stands at the periphery looking across at them.
The Little Girl in Blue is an oil painting on canvas created in 1934 near Amritsar, India, by Hungarian-Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil. Under India's Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972), the work is a national art treasure and must stay in the country. In 2018, it was auctioned by Sotheby's, Mumbai, fetching US$2.67 million.
The Hungarian-born Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil, exhibited 33 of her paintings at her One-man Show in the ballroom at Faletti's Hotel in Lahore, British India, held from 21 to 27 November 1937. Four paintings were sold in total; The Little Girl in Blue (1934), The Story (1937), Pink Self-portrait, and The Vina Player (1937).