The Art of Santiniketan: Masters and Emerging Artists August 27, 2008

Work by artists who have studied at Santiniketan, some old masters, others reasonably well established and many just starting out, will be showcased in London for the first time.

The “old masters”, whose work has been sourced from private collections in the UK since they cannot be brought out of India, include Rabindranath Tagore himself, plus Nandalal Bose, Benode Bihari Mukherjee, Manishi Dey, Sudhir Ranjan Khastagir, Sunayani Devi and Gaganendranath Tagore.

They are followed by “contemporary masters” — Somenath Hore, K.G. Subramanyan, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Krishna Reddy, Reba Hore, Jogen Chowdhury, Suhas Roy, Bipin Goswami and Ramananda Bandyopadhyay.

“Relatively speaking, Jogenda’s paintings are expensive — £20,000-25,000, (Rs 16.9-21.1 lakh)” said Ahuja.

In her next category are the “senior contemporaries” — Nandadulal Mukherjee, Sibaprasad Karchaudhuri, Pinaki Barua, Falguni Mukherjee, Prasun Kanti Bhattacharya and Dr Sitansu Mukhopadhyay.

In Britain, ever since Charles Saatchi began vacuuming up collections by talented students from art colleges, it has become fashionable for spotters to look for work whose value may multiply rapidly.

Ahuja has over 30 artists, aged in their late twenties to early thirties, whose work is priced in the £1,000-4,000 (Rs 84,565-Rs 3.4 lakh) range.

“Now is a very good time to buy,” she commented.

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