NEW YORK: Wrapping up a successful auction season, Saffronart's 2007 Winter Online Auction closed last week with a total sale value of approximately US$ 8 million. The sale featured works by artists including S. H. Raza and F. N. Souza of the Bombay based Progressive Artists' Group, and also by their contemporaries including Tyeb Mehta, Rameshwar Broota and Jogen Chowdhury.

Attracting close to 500 active participants from more than 25 countries, this sale notched an increase in average lot price from the September 2007 auctions of Modern Indian art held in New York and Saffronart's June 2007 Modern sale, underscoring buyers' increasing confidence in the market.

In addition, the fact that approximately 35 percent of those who won lots were new bidders reflected the continuing global expansion of the buyer base for Indian art. Exceeding its lower presale estimate, this auction underlined the strength of Saffronart's online platform, and the pioneering role that it has played in the development of the reach and transparency of the Indian art market.

Held over two days, this sale featured 110 lots from 36 different artists with a focus on paintings, but also included sculptures. With bidding continuing till the very last seconds, the sale saw world auction records being set for the prominent Indian painters Jogen Chowdhury (for a work on paper), Sakti Burman and Thota Vaikuntam, and for the pioneer sculptor S. Dhanapal.

The top lot of the sale, S. H. Raza's 'Maha Bindu' (1988) sold for US$ 652,000. This large canvas represents the artist's earliest exploration of nature and spirituality through the bindu, a motif that has characterized his work over the last two and a half decades.

Here, the vibrating bindu pulsates within a square, much like the ancient Hindu and Buddhist mandalas that described the sacred universe. The colors inscribed in corners of the square along with that of the bindu reflect the constituent elements of nature - kshiti, gagan, samira, pavak and jala, or earth, sky, air, fire and water.

Coming in a close second, Tyeb Mehta's 'Untitled' (2000), an existential rendering of a falling figure, sold for US$ 602,500. A motif of deep anguish, the figure careening downwards in endless freefall conveys the weight of personal and public violence in shaping the human experience today. Another piece focusing on the human condition was F. N. Souza's monumental portrait, 'Titian's Grandfather' (1955), which sold for US$ 591,500.

Also among the top five lots was Rameshwar Broota's 'Man - II' (1981), which after an intense round of last minute bidding, eventually sold for US$ 359,829. Jogen Chowdhury's 'Couple A' (1984), an intricate rendering of a typically dressed and postured Bengali couple, sold for US$ 304,750, attracting the most number of bids in the sale and almost tripling its high estimate to break the artist's record price for a work on paper.

An unusually large piece, this ink and pastel work on paper highlights the complexity of Chowdhury's creative process. With a flair for the ornamental and an eye for detail, the artist captures a fleeting moment of intimacy passing between man and woman.