Neville Tuli – The Metrognome

Osian’s Indian miniatures auction on April 13

Historically-significant Indian miniatures, modern art pieces include Mandi School works which had left India in 1960s before being purchased back.

by Osian

Opening its new annual calendar of auctions, Osian’s is bringing together a wide range of historically significant Indian miniatures and modern art in its Forty Masterpieces Auction to be held on Saturday, 13 April 2013, in Mumbai.

The opening preview exhibition of the Auction will be held at 7 pm on Friday, April 5, at the Osian’s Headquarters at G-2B Nariman Bhavan, Nariman Point. The Auction lots will be available for private previews at the same site from April 6 to April 12, 2013.

The auction comprises of 40 lots and is valued at the lower estimate at approximately Rs 5.6 crore (higher estimate Rs 8.4 crore; with average estimated lot price range Rs 14 to 21 lakh). Among the highlights in the section on Indian miniatures, there are some brilliant Mandi School works from the Ramayana and Devi Mahatmya series originally from the Royal Mandi Library Collection, which had left India in the 1960s and was purchased back by Osian’s from various Sotheby’s auctions to bring them back to India in 2005-2006. These works cannot be exported out of India now.

A few highlights among the masterpieces of the Modern Art Section include the works of Modern Masters of the Bombay, Bengal and Baroda School. The Auction includes a very rare and brilliant little work by early academic school modern master, Rao Bahadur MV Dhurandhar; rare and important paintings by Abanindranath, Gaganendranth and Rabindranath Tagore; a magnificent large oil on canvas painting by the master artist of both India and Pakistan, Ustad Allah Buksh; Jagdish Swamninathan’s famous ‘Bird, Tree, Mountain’ Series purchased from the artist in 1979; the very best early etchings by master printmaker Laxman Goud on which his fame was established; leading British sculptor, Sir Jacob Epstein’s famous bronze Head of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; Himmat Shah’s uniquely brilliant signature style terracotta heads; an impressively large commissioned portrait by Hemendranath Mazumdar and powerfully evocative paintings by the masters DP Roy Chowdhury, Ramkinkar Baij, Sanat Kumar Chatterjee, and Nikhil Biswas among many others.

Regarding the consolidation and re-strengthening of the Osian’s Group and the Auction House, Neville Tuli, Chairman, Osian’s Group says, “For the first time we have a fixed annual calendar for the Auction House, ranging from auctions for the antiquities, fine and popular arts, to film and sporting memorabilia, to rare books, prints and photographs. The Auction House has been separated from all other activities (eg. the film festival, the conservation laboratory, the museum, and the like) so as to make it a specialised leader once again and to start rebuilding the market for the India’s arts, culture and heritage. The last few years have seen immense pressures and challenges, and they have only made us recognise that the unique business model for the arts needs ever more diligence, buffers and care. A strong art market is pivotal for the growth of knowledge and the spreading of awareness and sensitivity regarding one’s cultural heritage.”

(Pictures courtesy Osian’s)

An auction and a film search engine

Neville Tuli launches the first Osianama Series Auction for antiquities, modern and contemporary fine arts, apart from vintage film memorabilia.

by Humra Quraishi

Neville Tuli, founder Chairman, Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art, is known for hosting big-budget, futuristic film festivals in the country’s capital city. With his newest endeavour, Tuli’s going back to the past – earlier last week, he launched the Osianama Series Auction, in the backdrop of the opening of the Osianama Art and Film Museum in New Delhi.

This Auction series is supposedly the forerunner to the upcoming Museum. Speaking to The Metrognome, Tuli says, “With the opening of the Osianama Art and Film Museum in New Delhi imminent, it is important for the public to have a sensibility for India’s fine and popular arts, film-related art forms, crafts and antiquities on many levels. This Auction presents a unique combination of antiquities, modern and contemporary fine arts and vintage Indian film memorabilia.

It is important that the collectors’ fraternity begins to view and study Indian arts and culture in a more holistic and integrated manner. The comparability between different art forms is minimal, whether from a historical or economic context, let alone the aesthetic.”

Among the highlights in the cinema section are Hindi cinema’s forgotten and silent era memorabilia from the Zafar Aabid collection, such as pre-independence rare stills including the cast and crew from Himanshu Rai’s 1928 classic silent film Shiraz, a signed year 1930 portrait of the silent era actress Sulochana, photographic stills from 1937’s Gangavataran, the first and the last talkie by the Father of Indian Cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke, one of the first artworks for Kamal Amrohi’s Razia Sultan made many years before the film was completed, an extremely rare and possibly the only existing six sheet poster of the 1980 Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor starrer Do Aur Do Paanch, a rare poster in excellent condition of the Shammi Kapoor starrer Raat Ke Rahi, designed by the famous poster designer of the 1960s, Pradyuman, who also designed the famous BR Films logo.

Apart from these gems is the rare complete set of Pandit RaviShankar’s original LP records of the music he composed for five Indian films – Anuradha (1960), Godaan (1963), Pather Panchali (1964), Meera (1979) and Gandhi (1982).

Tuli is also launching a library and archival collection on Indian arts and culture and the many ‘worlds of cinema’. He says, “We are launching theosianama.com, a dedicated online search engine and educational content for Indian and Asian arts, culture and the worlds of cinema, universally in its beta version before March 14 this year. In its first phase, the online search engine will focus primarily on Hindi and Bombay cinema and the history of Indian modern and contemporary fine arts.”

In this art object-centric site, there is a vast cinematic imagery, covering all forms of film publicity material and memorabilia including more than 2,50,000 original artworks, such as lithographic and offset posters, lobby cards, show-cards, song-synopsis booklets, photographic stills, handbills, hoardings, glass slides, scripts, costumes and the like, dating back to the silent era.

“Close to 95 per cent of all Hindi films produced have been covered in some form or other, and efforts are on to represent those remaining,” Tuli informs. “As of today, memorabilia representing iconic personalities such as Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Clint Eastwood, James Bond, Robert De Niro, Tarzan, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, and a host of others will enjoy prominence in theosianama.com,” he adds.