It was created in 1948 and for the next 50 years the artist kept it close to his heart. Literally. F N Souza first sold his painting, Golgotha in Goa, to a private collector in 1999, a few years before he died. The mosaic-like painting, which is reminiscent of traditional stained glass illustrations found in churches, has finally found its way to an auction house. Sotheby’s will be auctioning the seminal piece on March 18.
The next anecdote comes from the auction house itself: When Sotheby’s started its first sale of South Asian art in 1995, they did not even have a mailing list. They looked at the Manhattan telephone directory and picked out Indian names, doctors and other professionals. The journey from there to the present day at The Leela Palace in Delhi where Souza’s painting along with 25 other artworks was showcased before heading to New York for the auction has been long, but extraordinary.
Talking about the exhibition at Delhi, Anu Ghosh-Mazumdar, head of Sotheby’s Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art Department in New York, says, “These are highlights from our upcoming annual sale of modern and contemporary South Asian art. This is a market that Sotheby’s started in 1995. Over the years we have managed to introduce new elements into our sale. Keeping that in mind, we have a small section of sculptures this year, one of which by Prodosh Dasgupta is on display here. We have three photographs by Steve McCurry and Henri Cartier-Bresson, too. There is also a canvas by Zainul Abedin, considered by many as the father of Bangladeshi modern art.”
But it is undoubtedly Souza’s Golgotha in Goa that is the talking point of the upcoming sale. The painting demonstrates the influence of Catholicism on Souza. One of the biggest names in Indian art, Souza’s painting Birth set a world auction record in 2008 for the most expensive Indian painting sold till then. It sold for $2.5 million at Christie’s. In 2015, the painting was resold at Christie’s in New York for over $4 million. Elaborating on the painting, Ghosh-Mazumdar says, “It evokes faith and exudes an indefinable emotional appeal. After over a decade of pursuit, Sotheby’s has the privilege of bringing this masterpiece to auction.”
Souza has had a long seven-decade career in art. But not many works from his formative period have appeared at auctions. In fact, from the 1940s—the period from which the Golgotha in Goa dates—less than 20 paintings have ever appeared at auction. Painted at a time when Goa was still under Portuguese rule, the work adopts its formal composition from the altar at Golgotha, Jerusalem, where Christ was crucified. It is estimated to fetch anything between `1.78-`2.49 crore.
Besides this seminal piece, five canvases by M F Husain, a semi-abstract work by Ram Kumar, a canvas by Zainul Abedin, another by Jogen Chowdhury and an untitled painting by S H Raza will also feature in the sale. In the collection, the Bombay Progressives and the Bengal School of Art are a major highlight. Ghosh-Mazumdar explains, “It’s a very diverse sale across price points. The Bengal School of Art is quite sought-after now, because it is something more than just art, it is also nationalism. And people are becoming aware of this. Also, museums and galleries have gone out of their way to promote it.”