NEW YORK, N.Y.- This September, Sotheby’s will hold two sales of Indian Art: Indian Art including Miniatures and Modern Paintings on September 19th and Contemporary Art South Asia: India and Pakistan on September 21st, 2007. Important works, including paintings and sculpture, by M.F. Husain, Akbar Padamsee, V.S. Gaitonde, F.N. Souza, Ram Kumar, S.H. Raza and R. Broota, among others, will highlight Sotheby’s sale of Indian Art, including Miniatures and Modern Paintings on September 19th, 2007. The offering of approximately 118 lots is estimated to bring $6.4/9.4 million.

The sale of Contemporary Art South Asia: India and Pakistan, the second of its kind, on September 21st, 2007, will include approximately 84 lots of paintings, sculpture, photographs, video art and installations by artists Subodh Gupta, Ashim Purayashtha, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Jyothi Basu and Atul Dodiya, among others, and is estimated to bring $1.9/2.6 million. Works from both sales will be on exhibition beginning September 14th.

Zara Porter Hill, Director and Head of Sotheby’s Indian and Southeast Asian department, said: “This sale contains a selective group of works of exceptionally high quality, providing a great opportunity for collectors to acquire works of outstanding provenance from private collections. We have responded to this growing and dynamic market, first by introducing the sale of Contemporary works from India last year, and this year, by adding Contemporary works from Pakistan and by creating greater fluidity between the Modern and Contemporary categories, separating these areas by aesthetic as well as by date.”

The sale will feature M.F. Husain’s Pagan Mother, painted almost entirely in blue with the figure delineated by thick black contours and highlighted with flashes of white and terracotta (est. $500/700,000). Another highlight of the sale by M.F. Husain is Untitled (Horse), oil on canvas (est. $200/250,000), from a Private Maryland Collector. Husain has had a fascination with horses from an early age, when his grandfather would take him to the local farrier in Indore where he saw horses of all types. He has returned to the subject of the horse repeatedly in his work; his horses are wild, symbols of immense raw power, the raised hooves and heaving flank all suggestive of their pent up primal energy.

Also being offered is an important painting by R. Broota, The Other Space (est. $600/800,000). This work from the 1990s is representative of a brief and rare period in Broota’s career where the human figure has completely disappeared from his canvas. The artist’s unusual and painstaking technique of scraping paint from the canvas to reveal the white beneath creates a monochromatic work of intricate detail.

A work by V.S. Gaitonde, Untitled, 1973, (est. $500/700,000) will also be offered. Gaitonde, associated with the Progressive Artists Group, was exposed to American post-war art in 1964 when visiting New York and subsequently began to use a roller and palette knife instead of a paint brush. He was not concerned with representation, but with the painted surface itself. His paintings are constructed with layers of color which form a balanced relationship between light and texture.

A great Untitled work by S.H. Raza (est. $280/380,000) will also be featured. The artist says of his work, “Music, poetry, dance, as much as literary thought, have always inspired me in my work. But as a painter, I have to realize the ideas, the moods, the sentiments, in a visual language of form and color.” Akhar Padamsee’s Untitled (Nude), 1962, demonstrates the artist’s preoccupation with mapping the human form and capturing its emotive qualities (here, est. $150/200,000). Padamsee’s nudes provide a fascinating insight into the development of his visual language and creative process. The central theme of the artist’s work is the solitary figure, defined by a sense of vulnerability and loneliness. The present work is rich in tonal and textural juxtapositions with the luminous ochre hues contrasting sharply with the shadowy gray-green ground, creating a form that suggests a ‘landscape’ of the body. Also included in this sale are works by two artists from Pakistan: Anwar Jelal Shemza and Zahoor ul Akhlaq. Shemza’s colorful work, City Wall, an oil on board, est. $20/30,000, is pictured here. Akhlaq’s Untitled work, executed in ink on paper, from 1968 is inspired by the artist’s interest in the ‘rhythm’ of calligraphy (est. $15/20,000). While Akhlaq’s contribution to a reinvention of the miniature tradition is welldocumented, his work with the calligraphic form is less explored. This work is a strong example of his explorations of the text as sign. Rounding out the sale is a section of six Miniatures, including Study of a Black Buck, India, Mughal, circa 1740-1750 (est. $30/40,000) and A Princess Hawking on Her Stallion, India, Murshidabad, circa 1700 (est. $15/20,000), signed by Al-Qatib al Faqir Mohammed Latif; both works are executed in opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper. Additionally, one set of botanical studies and three Anglo-Indian works will be offered.

The sale of Contemporary Art South Asia: Indian and Pakistan, the second of its kind, will be highlighted by an Untitled work by Subodh Gupta from 2006. This life-sized sculpture, depicting an Indian family on a motorcycle, is estimated to sell for $200/250,000. A work by Atul Dodiya, Man from Kabul, 2001, est. $100/150,000, made of acrylic with marble dust on fabric and will also be offered. Another highlight is a work by Mrinalini Mukherjee, Aspara, 1986 (est. $60/80,000). This sculpture, made of natural fiber, explores the hidden character of the material. Also featured in the sale is a work by Ashim Purkayastha, He is not my Enemy, 2004 (est. $30/40,000). This acrylic on canvas work is a self-portrait of the artist with Gandhi.

Additionally, works by two Contemporary artists from Pakistan, Rashid Rana and Zeeshan Muhammed, will be included in this sale. Rana’s The World is Not Enough, a digital print with aluminum mounting has an estimate of $40/60,000. Two Untitled works on paper by Muhammed from 2006 will also be offered (est. $3/5,000 each).