A new record for Indian art at Rs 42 crore — and it’s VS Gaitonde once again

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

Gaitonde work from Glenbarra Art Museum sets new record for Indian art

An untitled oil on canvas from 1969 by V S Gaitonde sold for Rs 42 crore on mere days ago, making it the highest price achieved for a work of modern or contemporary Indian art globally. The painting was among 57 lots that went under the hammer at auction house Pundole’s in Mumbai. Works by other Indian artists — Tyeb Mehta, Akbar Padamsee, Arpita Singh, Somnath Hore and Jagdish Swaminathan — also made records for the artists. Gaitonde’s bluish painting, reminiscent of large expanses of sky or sea, is from the collection of Masanori Fukuoka, a Japanese fish processing businessman. Fukuoka set up Glenbarra Art Museum in Himeji, Japan, in 1991, with works of 60 Indian artists. The Indian Express has all the information about the development.

Van Gogh landscape — once owned by Yves Saint Laurent — up for sale

Vincent van Gogh\’s painting Fields near the Alpilles (1889) is going on show for the first time ever, initially at Christie’s in London. Although no estimate has been given, it is expected to fetch around $45m when it comes up for sale at a May evening auction in New York. Painted in November 1889, Van Gogh\’s powerful landscape has always been hidden away in private collections. The Christie’s catalogue entry, when published nearer the sale, will reveal that among the owners were the couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé. Van Gogh set up his easel just five minutes’ walk from the gate of the asylum on the outskirts of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where he stayed for a year after mutilating his ear. The Art Newspaper paints an evocative narrative.

Nelson Mandela’s paintings of life in prison to be sold as NFTs

The tiny austere cell on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in jail, and the infinite diversity of the digital world are a huge paradox, but will collide next month when the first non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of artwork by the former South African president and anti-apartheid hero are sold. My Robben Island consists of five vivid watercolours painted by Mandela after he stood down as president in 1999, plus The Motivation, a handwritten text that explains his visualisation of the harsh island prison. All six works bear his signature. Makaziwe Mandela, the former president’s daughter, said her father’s watercolours represented “the triumph of the human spirit”. The Guardian tells you more.

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