LONDON.- On 12 June, Christie’s will host the 24th annual sale of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art alongside the Arts of India auction as part of Indian Art London. These sales will offer collectors an exciting opportunity to buy classical Indian art from early Gandharan sculpture to Company School painting, all the way through to iconic modern paintings by leading artists Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Tyeb Mehta, and a never before seen sculpture by Ravinder Reddy. The South Asian Modern + Contemporary sale features Untitled (Goddess), a formative example of the artists’ now iconic representations of deified Indian women (Lot 46, estimate: £25,000 – 35,000). Bringing together the ancient and the contemporary, and linking temple, kitsch and Pop art, Reddy's larger than life sculptures command attention from the viewer and challenge traditional notions of beauty, femininity, and domesticity.

SOUTH ASIAN MODERN + CONTEMPORARY ART
The South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art sale includes 70 lots and features Tyeb Mehta’s (1925-2009) monumental and momentous Falling Figure, 1992, which was used as the central backdrop for Artists against Communalism (AAC), a twelve-hour cultural sit-in organised by SAHMAT at Shivaji Park in Mumbai (lot 32, estimate: £1,200,000-1,800,000). At a moment when Mumbai was on the brink of erupting in communal violence, this painting became the banner under which several artists, musicians, dancers and poets gathered together in creative unity. Christie’s is privileged to offer this work to discerning international collectors. Vasudeo S. Gaitonde’s Untitled masterpiece from 1986 marks the artist’s return to painting large canvases following a serious and debilitating accident two years prior (lot 22, estimate £1,000,000- 1,500,000). The instantly recognisable layered composition of nonobjective bubbling forms, reference Conceptual Art, Abstract Expressionism and Zen Buddhism and showcases Gaitonde as a virtuoso at the height of his powers.

ARTS OF INDIA
Comprising 157 lots, the Arts of India sale opens with a small group of Gandharan Buddhist sculpture dated to the 2nd/3rd century from a private English collection (lots 1-5). A highlight of the sale is an important illustrated manuscript of the Ramayana from Jaipur, dated 1796-97 AD (lot 76). It is thought to have once belonged to Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi, the warrior queen who was a leading figure in the Indian Revolt of 1857. The sale also features a private Dutch collection illustrating examples of 18th and 19th century paintings from the Mughal, Rajput and Pahari courts of northern India. The collection includes four pages from the famed Polier Albums made for the 18th century Swiss adventurer and collector of Indian art, Antoine Louis Henri Polier (lots 21-24) and a resplendent folio from the second Guler Ramayana series dated to circa 1790-1800 (lot 26). Alongside these paintings are offered sumptuous objects including a collection of Mughal coloured glass rosewater sprinklers (lot 41) and an impressive, early 20th century commemorative gem-set silver casket from Rajasthan (lot 133).