Dinesh Vazirani's eyes danced over the paddles raised by the bidders, on to a phone bank on the left side of the dais (where six women were taking phone bids) and then to a screen that displayed bids made through a dedicated app and website. Two screens in front of auctioneer's lectern showed the price of lots in major world currencies. And, all the 42 lots on the block were displayed on one side of the hall.
Vazirani had to be hawk-eyed to take in everything before making a bidding increment. And, every rap of his gavel was preceded by a tough round of bidding. By the end of the evening, he was a happy auctioneer with a white glove sale (no lots unsold). In fact, his happiness was two-fold since the auction, Art Rises for Kerala (ARK), “was for a good cause” and had raised the “expected” amount of money.
ARK, a fundraiser auction to support relief and rebuilding efforts in flood-hit Kerala, was jointly organised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation and Saffronart auction house. It was held on January 18 at the Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty, and fetched Rs3.2 crore. “The Kochi-Muziris Biennale is an artists' biennale. This auction was a way for artists to contribute to the rebuilding of Kerala,” said Vazirani. It was the first ever live art auction in Kerala, attracting gallerists, international artists and high-profile art collectors including Kiran Nadar, chairperson, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. There were many foreign bidders, too, in-house and online, for the auction. “Most of the works for the auction were donated by artists and art collectors,” said Nadar, who is a philanthropist, too. “It was a pretty good collection, considering the fact that it is a charity auction.”
As expected, the highest bid was for a work donated by British sculptor Anish Kapoor. The untitled, blue, canvas-and-resin work fetched Rs1.3 crore—double its starting bid. But, the most heated bidding was for two drawings by the late Amrita Sher-Gil—one of the greatest avant-garde woman artists of the 20th century. The drawings were a surprise contribution by sculptor-painter Vivan Sundaram, her nephew. The bid for Sher-Gil's Female Nude (18x22''; charcoal on paper) started at Rs6.5 lakh and closed at Rs25 lakh. The second work, Head (19x19''; graphite on paper), opened at Rs6 lakh and closed at Rs24 lakh.
Dayanita Singh's untitled work was another top grosser (Rs22 lakh). Singh's “Family Box” is a wooden 'base' that can hold five framed, black-and-white photographs of the winning bidder and his family. Singh will bear the cost of travel for and production of photographs. Works of T.V. Santhosh and Vishwanathan Velu, too, fetched more than Rs10 lakh each.
Saffronart had waived the buyer's premium (percentage for the auction house), contributing the entire amount to the chief minister's distress relief fund. Both factors helped attract many art lovers to the auction. Actor-turned politician Nafisa Ali said she came not because some particular work or artist was featured, but “because it is for a good cause, a good effort”.
Former minister M.A. Baby says that when the deluge happened in August 2018, there were apprehensions about being able to host the Biennale itself. “But, artists came forward and said that they would do whatever possible for the rebuilding of Kerala. This will be remembered always in the art scene of the state,” he said.
