Help with 1960s Indian contemporary painting. Has potential.

I recently bought this in a auction and It was offered without any further details or photos taken of the back. I gambled on it without knowing if the artist was Western or Indian. After I received it I noticed that it had a provenance art gallery label/receipt stuck to the back. This label shows that this picture was purchased in 1969 Art Gallery which was located in Bombay India. Research points out that this was a respected gallery and many celebrated Indian artist had hold their exhibitions in this art gallery during the 1960-70s. The label also shows that it was sold for 425/- Rupees which was a fairly large sum in the late 1960s India considering that a average was a few rupees a day. I tried to research who the artist is but I do need help and do not have the resources or subscriptions to the art database platforms.


I did found out that many artist exhibited in this gallery like Abdul Aziz (A.A.) Raiba who had a solo exhibition in 1967, Jehangir Sabavala exhibited 1962, and Rasik Raval in 1972.


I have researched the address of Art Gallery. This gallery was based in a "A" location during early 60s to late 80s,inside the Dhanraj Mahal, Bombay, Mumbai which was the former palace of the Raja Dhanrajgir of Hyderabad and now the current palace/residence of the princely Dhanrajgir family in Mumbai.


The price on the receipt label shows that it was purchased for 425/- rupees in 1969. According to my research a monthly salary for a goverment officer in the late 1960s was around the 300-350 rupees and a average skilled worker in those days made 5 to 10 rupees a day if not far less. So a sum of 425/- rupees must have approx two months wages for a average worker which must have been a large amount for a artwork in 1969.


All these things named above like the hot market for Indian contemporary art, purchase price, gallery location, time period, subject, quality and previous exhibited artists in this gallery have let me believe that it has potential and that is why I need you guys for your knowledge and in the hope we can find out who the artist is.

 

Or maybe any suggestions how I can get my hands on the exhibition records of this art gallery? I'm based in London and there are many libraries and museums here. But don't know where to start or where i can find the archives/records of this art gallerie

 

Would definitely follow up on this piece. Did a little bit of searching around and couldn't find the artist, but noted that another painting from the same art gallery sold for $48,000 at Sothebys, so clearly this gallery had some better pieces in the 60s. Perhaps you saw this already.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2005/indian-southeast-asian-art-n08075/lot.163.html

From the link:

"Purchased by the current owner from the Attic, Shirom's Art Gallery, Bombay, 1962"

If you can't nail down the artist, maybe contact Sothebys or another auction house?

I think it is beautiful!

 

If you're in London, I'd actually take it to Sotheby's. I think you've a good thing there.

 

INH, well found!

 

what a great find. That will help me a lot rese\rching the artist. I will remove the pictures now from this thread because i want to sell it, I dont want it to pop up on google search. ITo many search terms have been used that link here. thank you very much

 

Hum... Here's another artist, Rasik Dugashankar Raval, who exhibited there and whose work ended up at Sotheby's.

http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/raval_rasik_dugashankar/artist/174419/

Debora

 

You may also try to contact some local Indian auctioners, they may have more information on an Indian artist.

You can try saffronart.com and astaguru.com and pundoles.com. Links are below.

http://www.pundoles.com/
https://www.astaguru.com/
https://www.saffronart.com/


The limited research I did. The artist does not appear to be famous - or achieve the greatness that the others mentioned above have done. But i will leave it to the experts to help you.