Husain painting sells for Rs 3.1 crore

A 1960 painting by M F Husain fetched a whopping Rs 3.1 crore at Christie's South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale in London which saw 76 lots of celebrated artists going under the hammer for Rs 18.98 crore.

Pakistani artist Rashid Rana's 'Red Carpet' got the second highest price of Rs 1.3 crore at the auction which took place on June 10, the organisers said. Ram Kumar's 'Untitled (Benares)' sold for Rs 1.04 crore.

The 'Ragamala Series' -- oil work on canvas, features visual interpretations of Indian musical modes. The series captures Husain's continuous fascination with rasa or aesthetic rapture.

The inter-disciplinary nature of music, sculpture, dance, painting and film provided enormous inspiration to Husain at that time (1950s and 60s) and his 'Ragamala Series' embodies the masterful usage of his most recognisable pictorial elements.

Husain's other works 'The Preacher at Mecca' fetched 121,250 pounds (Rs 9.5 million) and 'Untitled (Horses)' Rs 5.7 million.

Among the others important sales were S H Raza's 'Permanence' (133,250 pounds), 'Germination' (109,250 pounds) and 'La Terre' (87,650 pounds), Subodh Gupta's 'Leap of Faith'
(99,650 pounds), F N Souza's 'Untitled (The Church)' (85,250 pounds) and Akbar Padamsee's 'Village aux Quatre Maisons Oranges' (70,850 pounds).