A New Era for Indian Art: New Auction Record Set By A 14-foot Painting by M. F. Husain

In the run-up to Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale in New York on March 19th, the large-scale painting Untitled (Gram Yatra) by the legendary Indian modernist M. F. Husain was estimated to sell in the range of $2.5 to $3.5 million. Instead, Untitled (Gram Yatra) fetched a jaw-dropping $13.8 million, setting a new record and taking the title of the most expensive piece of Indian art sold at auction.

Over the past decade, there has been a flurry of auction records for Indian art, as collector demand has climbed higher each season and the prices have followed. Not only did Husain shatter his own personal record of $3.1 million, but he nearly doubled the previous record of $7.45 million, which was achieved by a painting by National Art Treasure artist Amrita Sher-Gil in September 2023.

Maqbool Fida “M.F.” Husain (1913 – 2011) is a key figure of modern Indian art, with his influence recognized by high civilian honors including the Padma Shri (1966), Padma Bhushan (1973) and Padma Vibhushan (1991). He was a founding member of the renowned Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group, which was formed in 1947 in response to India’s Independence. The PAG aimed to bring a distinctly Indian perspective to the modern art movement that was sweeping across the globe. In keeping with these goals, Husain took his first international trip to China in 1952, where he studied the painters Xu Beihong and Qi Baishi, as well as ancient art forms like the clay horses of the Song dynasty. He then traveled to Europe in 1953, where he encountered the cutting-edge works of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

After his return from Europe, Husain painted Untitled (Gram Yatra) in 1954. The canvas spans an impressive 14 feet, and it features 13 vignettes of Indian village life. It is a stunning work that captures Husain at an important moment in his career — the style expresses his East Asian and Western art influences through expressive brushstrokes and abstract forms, while the subject matter demonstrates his commitment to depicting Indian themes. The vignettes themselves also nod to Indian miniature painting.

Each vignette is an ode to everyday Indian life and its people. In one scene, a man and woman ride in a cart drawn by an ox, and in another, a man plays drums while a woman dances. There are scenes dedicated to agricultural chores, such as milking cows and milling grain, and some that celebrate the natural landscape, like a monkey scampering up a tree. Husain frequently revisited these themes throughout his career, depicting rural life and other iconic elements of Indian culture as he reflected on India’s evolving identity in the decades following Independence.

The story behind Untitled (Gram Yatra)’s journey to the auction block is a fascinating one, too — a Norwegian doctor, Leon Elias Volodarsky, purchased the painting the same year it was made, while he was living in New Delhi to help establish a surgery training center with the World Health Organization. Upon Volodarsky’s passing, the painting was donated to the Oslo University Hospital in 1964, where it was installed in a private neuroscience corridor and remained largely unseen for 7 decades. Recently, the hospital’s board decided to auction the artwork to fund a training center for doctors in Dr. Volodarsky’s name.

Untitled (Gram Yatra) is truly a masterpiece, and its record-shattering sale indicates that the interest in modern Indian art is stronger than ever. In fact, Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale totaled nearly $25 million, outperforming its estimates. The auction boasted artworks by many other top Indian artists, including S.H. Raza and F.N. Souza, and several records were made at the level of individual artists. Modern artist S.H. Raza set a personal record for a work on paper at $2.35 million, and contemporary Sri Lankan artist Senaka Senanayake set a new auction record of $107,100 for a painting of cranes. The South Asian art market shows no signs of slowing down!

— Sonia Patwardhan