Gaitonde abstract leads Sotheby’s South Asian Art sale in New York

A painting by the pioneering Indian abstract artist Vasudeo S Gaitonde (1924-2001) led Sotheby’s anniversary sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art in New York when it sold for a hammer price of $1.5m (£1.25m) against a $1m-1.5m estimate.

Extracted from Antiques Trade Gazette | Anne Crane

Untitled, an oil on canvas by Vasudeo S Gaitonde that made $1.5m (£1.25m) in Sotheby’s March 16 sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art in New York.

Gaitonde, a pioneering Indian abstract artist and a member of the Bombay Progressives Artists’ Group, painted this work in 1963. The 4ft 2in x 2ft 10in (1.27m x 86cm), oil on canvas, is signed and dated in Devanagari and ‘Gaitonde 63’ on reverse.

It is an example of one of the artist’s early abstract paintings that evokes the feeling of a landscape through gradations of colour and geometric forms that coalesce around a ‘horizon’. The painting came from the Robert and Ruth Marshak collection and was acquired in Bombay in the 1960s.

The 79-lot sale, which was held on March 16, marked the 25th anniversary of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sales at Sotheby’s worldwide and raised a premium inclusive total of $4.8m with 91% sold by volume.

The auction house said that 33% of all the works sold were acquired online and that 25% of the bidders were aged 40 or under.