MUMBAI.- Artworks by iconic masters as well as cutting-edge contemporaries will be up for sale in an eventful day of dual auctions in Mumbai on February 15th. In a continued sign of the resurgence of the Indian art market and the importance of auctions in India, the largest auction house for Indian art, Saffronart, is hosting two ‘live’ auctions on Saturday, February 15, 2014 in Mumbai.

ALIVE Contemporary Day Sale starting at 4:00 pm IST, is a no reserve auction featuring 70 lots by some of the most sought after names in contemporary art and will be followed by works of well known modern masters in the Live Modern Evening Sale at 7:30 pm IST. Both auctions, as well as a preview exhibition on Wednesday, February 12 for collectors to view the works, will take place at the Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai. Collectors may bid in the room, on the phone or place bids online on www.saffronart.com while viewing a live video webcast of the auction.

The evening auction is led by a seminal 1951 paper work by S.H. Raza titled Haut De Cagnes, a beautiful landscape which is typical of his rigid, geometric representations of French towns and villages in the early 1950s, following his move to Paris. In Raza’s representation of the village, we glimpse the medieval ramparts and houses stacked on top of one another, with the historic Grimaldi castle at the apex. Haut de Cagnes depicts the small twelfth century hilltop village of southern France in the heart of the French Riviera. The village has long been a source of inspiration for numerous artists from Renoir to Derain to Modigliani, lending it the moniker of ‘the Montmatre of the French Riviera’. The presence of the black moon gives the painting a deep meditative quality that is elemental and primordial. We are glimpsing the very beginnings of what was to become a definitive symbol in his paintings - the bindu. Haut de Cagnes is unquestionably the defining work of this period.

Also featuring for the first time in a Saffronart auction is a painting by Rabindranath Tagore. First published as late as 1983, this may be a portrait of Tagore’s beloved elder sister-in-law Kadambari Devi, who shocked the young Rabindranath with her suicide in 1884 and became the central character in his famous novella, Nashtanirh (The Broken Nest), filmed as Charulata. It is believed that the portrait bears resemblance to a photograph of Kadamabari.

The evening sale also includes works by Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, Hemendranath Majumdar, and the Progressives F. N. Souza, M.F. Husain, Sadanand Bakre, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar and Tyeb Mehta.

A four and a half foot G. Ravinder Reddy sculpture is a stunning depiction of the contemporary Indian woman in his signature style. Invariably, Reddy’s creations look frontally through wide-open eyes, the characteristic attitude of one who proclaims. His sculptures are striking on many counts – they are extremely large, they are in bold hues of red, blue or in gold and each of the heads have intricate hairstyles. Reddy has successfully translated the traditional Indian sculptural into a contemporary idiom.

Also in the auction is a video installation by Gigi Scaria. His work titled, Pan(i)city draws the viewer’s attention towards the painful truths of migrancy and displacement. The prominent Contemporary artists featured include Anju Dodiya, Atul Dodiya, G. Ravinder Reddy, Nataraj Sharma, Mithu Sen, Thukral and Tagra, Anandajit Ray and many others. There is no reserve price on all the lots featuring in the day sale, which represents a terrific opportunity for first-time buyers in particular.

Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and co-founder of Saffronart said, “Looking at the excitement that our first live auction generated in September last year, we decided to stage two exceptional live auctions in Mumbai, taking place back to back. The auctions feature some of the most iconic works by Raza, Husain, and Tagore from the moderns in the evening sale, and Ravinder Reddy, Atul Dodiya among others in the contemporary day sale.”