DIALOGUE
Six Strokes of Separation We gave one of India's leading curators a chance to pick six of her favourite paintings by Indian artists. Here she speaks with six leading experts on what makes these artworks so valuable.
By Roshini Vadehra
NOV — DEC 2012
To select six of the ‘most important’ works of the Indian Masters is a daunting task. There are so many jewels that the modernists created, and to have favourites seems unfair. So neither is this selection necessarily ‘most important,’ nor the works most significant… They are simply what first come to my mind when I am asked to select a particular work of each of these artists. It could either be because it’s always been the most coveted work of a certain artist; or because it set a world record when it was auctioned; or because it was bought by an international museum at a time when Indian art hadn’t yet carved out a permanent space in every important museum exhibition, biennale or art fair. M. F. Hussain’s ‘Between the Spider and the Lamp’ is easily the most coveted artwork in modern Indian art history. Ask any collector, curator or student and they would give an arm and a leg to spend a few moments with this great piece of art.
F. N. Souza’s ‘Crucifixion’ can be viewed at Tate Britain, one of the most recognised sites
of modern art in the world. ‘Saurashtra’ is one of the most beautiful works of S. H. Raza that I have ever viewed in my life, and it obviously made that impression on a lot of people when it set the world record for Indian art at a Christie’s auction in 2010. ‘Celebration’ by Tyeb Mehta, currently housed at the Glenbarra Art Museum in a small town called Himeji in Japan, is a monumental work of the great master, and rivalled only by the great ‘Shantiniketan Triptych’ in its beauty and strength. Ram Kumar’s figurative works have a melancholic feel to them, with the ability to immediately draw the viewer into their story of the individuals and the landscapes that surround them. ‘Vagabond’ is the most important work of this period, and broke all records for the artist when it was auctioned at Christie’s in New York in 2008.
Last but not least, the work of one of the most spiritually evolved artists – V. S. Gaitonde – exudes an immediate sense of calm and tranquillity. In my opinion, India has not seen another abstract artist like Gaitonde.