Saffron Art Gallery to auction anti-Hindu Husain’s paintings

Jyeshtha Krushna Pratipada

Protest against anti-Hindu painter Hussain

Click here to see protest letters written to Saffronart by Hindus

Saffronart is going to organise auction of anti-Hindu painter Maqbool Fida Hussain’s paintings on June 10 & 11 in Mumbai. All Hindus should protest agianst it & force Saffronart to remove paintings of Hussain from its auction.

Contact details of Saffronart:

Saffronart, India

Industry Manor, 3rd Floor
Prabhadevi
Mumbai – 400 025
Tel: (91 22) 2436 4113
Fax: (91 22) 2432 1187
Email: [email protected]

Gallery Timings: Mon – Sat: 11.00 am to 7.00 pm

Saffronart, USA

The Fuller Building,
595 Madison Avenue, Suite 900
New York, NY 10022
Tel: (212) 627 5006
Fax: (212) 627 5008
Email: [email protected]

Gallery Timings: Mon – Fri: 11.00 am to 7.00 pm

• Saffron Art Gallery to auction anti-Hindu Husain’s paintings (7 Jun 09)
• Protest against Saffronart’s auction of Hussain Paintings (5 Jun 09)

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Mumbai: ‘Saffron Art Gallery’ an international organization dealing in auction of art works, has arranged an ‘on line’ auction on 10th and 11th June 2009. Paintings by anti-Hindu artist M F Husain have also been included in the auction. (Hindus! Husain has hurt religious sentiments of thousands of Hindus by denigrating Hindu deities through his paintings. Join hands to stop in lawful manner, the auction of his paintings! – Editor SP) Saffron Art Gallery had included even in their earlier auctions held on 10th and 11th May 2006, 6th and 7th June 2007 and in December 2008, paintings by Husain despite protests by devout Hindus. (It is the lack of unity that propels organizations like Saffron Art Gallery to disregard sentiments of Hindus! – Editor SP) 

Saffron Art Gallery will be keeping modern and contemporary Indian art work on auction. The auction is going to be on line on its website www.saffronart.com There will be art works of 57 artists on auction.

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 Protest against Saffronart’s auction of Hussain Paintings

Jyeshtha Shuddha Trayodashi

June 5, 2009

‘Saffronart’, a leading art auction house in the city will host its annual summer online-art-auction of ‘Modern and Contemporary Indian Art’ comprising works of 57 noted artists on June 10 and 11.

The auction will take place at www.Saffronart.Com.

The catalogue presents a wide range of Modern and Contemporary Indian art, offering collectors an opportunity to add depth and breadth to their collections.

Notable among the artists featured in the sale are V S Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, Arpita Singh, Akbar Padamsee, M F Hussain, Jogen Chowdhury, Subodh Gupta, Hema Upadhyay, Anju Dodiya and Riyas Komu, Saffronarts CEO and Co-founder, Dinesh Vazirani said in a statement here.

"Saffronart has always been keen on making important works of highly prized Indian artists available to collectors around the world. Today, collectors have become very selective. Keeping this in mind, we have carefully edited this sale, and are committed to presenting extraordinary works at competitive prices," he said.

"This auction also promises to entice new collectors with a number of historically and aesthetically significant works by recognized modernists and younger, contemporary artists," Vazirani said adding the front cover of the catalogue is an important 1984 canvas by modernist Gaitonde.One of India’s foremost modern painters, Vasudeo Gaitonde is remembered for the independence, fastidiousness and minimalism of his creative process, as well as for his reclusive nature and limited output.

Gaitonde’s works from the 1980s took his visual script of silence to a new level of sophistication. Having mastered the manipulation of colour, light and texture through the meticulous layering and removal of pigment on his surfaces, the artist was able to bestow his paintings with depth and luminosity, simplicity and an air of mystery.

Another significant modern work is Akbar Padamsee’s untitled canvas from his ‘Metascape’ series.

Through his rugged, sweeping landscapes, meticulously faceted with a palette knife, Padamsee manages to simultaneously freeze the passage of time and communicate an impression of the interminable.

These unyielding vistas are marked by other oppositions as well. They are quiet, yet commanding; engaging, yet distant. The artist skillfully uses scale, texture and a dramatic primary palette to convey the overwhelming presence and power of nature in these works.

Also included in the sale is an untitled 2006 canvas by Subodh Gupta, where the artist juxtaposes the polished with the tarnished, the new with the old, bringing into focus the dualistic quality of stainless steel, and, by extension, the dualities of life in India following the country’s dramatic economic liberalisation in the 1990s. Pushing the viewer to question value, and the unique ways in which it is translated from traditional to contemporary contexts, this scene foregrounds the importance of outliers and departures from the flattening norms of globalisation and the immense significance of the local within the ascendant global matrix.

Also featuring amongst the contemporary works is Hema Upadhyay landmark mixed-media work, ‘Bleeding Hearts’. Combining performance with painting, the personal with the political, Upadhyay’s works raise issues of loss, disenchantment and dislocation in modern urban life and, more generally, questions of security and survival in todays violent world.

The artist’s ‘Bleeding Hearts’ series of works is part of her response to violence, both political and domestic, and its aftermath.

In these large works on paper, the artist questions the value of flippant apologies, and whether the deep hurt and wounds caused by such violence can be erased, particularly by decorative or showy flourishes.

The total lower and higher estimates for this auction are Rs 11 crore ($2.3 million) and Rs. 13.9 crore ($3 million) respectively.

The sale will also be accompanied by a illustrated print catalogue, also available online at www.Saffronart.Com.

Source: Business Standard

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Protest letters written by Hindus to Saffroart

From: Sreedhar Kesireddy <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 10:32 AM
Subject: M F Hussain paintings
To: [email protected], [email protected]

To
The Organizers of auctions,
Saffronart India & USA.
 
Namaskar,

Some morals & ethics need to be practiced in business. Particularly when spiritual and Gods factors are involved in it. I came to know that you are going to organize auctions of some paintings both in India as well as USA. I also came to know that the so called painter M F Hussain’s paintings are also included in it. He might be a great painter in your opinion, but the fact is different.
 
1. He wantedly due to hate, painted the nude pictures of many Hindu Gods and their worshippers. Defamated Hindu Gods and Bharat Mata pictures in many other paintings.
2. He did not practiced such nudeness when he painted his daughter, mother and many muslim kings who invaded and ruled in India.
3. Instead of feeling guilty for such paintings, he advised us to see those paintings with an artistic mood, but not the nudeness involved in it.
4. If he want to show his artistic talent in his paintings, then why did he selectively and exclusively choose the Hindu Gods alone for it, why he did not show such talent in the paintings of his mother, daughter and others whom he love and respect.
5. Imagine, if M F Hussain hurts you in the same manner, do you prefer to do business with his such paintings for the sake of money.
6. M F Hussain is trying to utilise your services to promote and sell his evil paintings.
 
I hereby request you to kindly remove/ban all his paintings from your gallary of auctions. Let us not promote the evil artists in this great art. Hindus do have great tolerance, but definitly not without any limits. Hope you consider my request positively.
 
Thanking you in positive anticipation,
 
Regards
Sreedhar Kesireddy
INDIA (BHARAT)

Related HJS Campaigns

1. Protest against defamation of Hindu Deities & Icons
2. Learn Hinduism