Largest online auction for Contemprory Indian Art to OPEN

A regular feature on the Indian art calendar is Saffronart’s annual Spring Online Auction, which will take place exclusively on www.saffronart.com from March 12 – 13, 2008. The sale includes works by 55 contemporary artists, including globally sought painters and sculptors, and has a lower estimate of just over US$ 4million. Featuring a total of 140 lots, this will be the twentieth online auction conducted by Saffronart.
This auction’s repertoire includes Surendran Nair’s monumental canvas ‘Doctrine of the Forest: An Actor at Play (Cuckoonebulopolis)’ featured on the front cover, an installation by Subodh Gupta titled ‘Feast for Hundred and Eight Gods 2’, featured on the back cover, and works by Atul Dodiya including the large work on paper, ‘Vansha Vriksha’, executed in 1999. The catalogue also includes significant works on canvas by Sudhir Patwardhan from the 1970’s, important works by T.V. Santhosh, Bharti Kher and Shibu Natesan, an intricately patterned Jayashree Chakravarty canvas, and a large watercolour by Anju Dodiya.

Dinesh Vazirani, Cofounder and Director of Saffronart, says, “Contemporary Indian art is attracting increasing attention in the global art market. Some of the artists, whose works have been included in this auction, have been actively sought after at art exhibits and art fairs around the world. I’m sure this auction will fetch very good returns for the artists and the collectors.”
Online auctions, pioneered by Saffronart, have transformed the landscape of Modern and Contemporary Indian Art, making it accessible to participants who are constrained by geographical and physical limitations and opening it to a wide spectrum of international art lovers. Saffronart, established by Dinesh and Minal Vazirani, has set global benchmarks for online art auctions, and has recently been included in a case study at the Harvard Business School.