Tyeb Mehta
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M.F. Hussein is the name that immediately comes to my mind when thinking of great Indian artists, 
partly because of the controversies surrounding his art. Last year, I had read somewhere that a painting by Tyeb Mehta had fetched in excess of a million dollars ($1.54m) at Christie’s in New York. The news was notable because this was the first time a modern Indian art work had been sold for that much.
Mehta is not as prolific as Hussein (a friend). Today’s New York Times features an article on the eighty year old artist and has a slideshow of some of his paintings. They are beautiful. I know some of the Rantlusters are decent painters. Maybe it’s time to up the ante?
Wonderful article, and the paintings are impressive! Hussein’s and Mehta’s paintings seem to have a lot of common ground, perhaps due to their similar backgrounds in the film industry, and their use of Indian mythological motifs in their work. Hussein is known for painting horses, and Mehta seems to favor the bull.
I’d heard about the painting that sold for more than a million, but did not know that it was in the secondary market, and that the artist himself did not make much money. Let’s hope he continues to make great art for many more years.
According to the article, they are also friends and Mehta’s first sale was through someone Hussein introduced to him.
[...] Sticky Wicket: If there were any lingering doubts about who really controls international cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently laid those to rest with an awe-inspiring bout of financial muscle flexing. The BCCI, which is the 800 pound gorilla in world cricket, unilaterally decided to withdraw from some ICC (International Cricket Council - cricket’s international governing body) tournaments, increase the number of tours with the stronger cricketing nations, and has dumped the weaker ones. Weaker teams like Bangladesh now find themselves come full circle. After attaining full test status with the backing of the BCCI, they now find the same organization unwilling to organize matches with them. Some are lauding the birth of a new world order, while others are worried about the impact such hard-sell financial strategies will have on the cricketing world. Time will tell. Contemporary Indian Art: Went to the Chennai Govt. Museum this week. The museum, supposedly the pride and joy of the city, is actually quite badly maintained. The exception was the gallery of contemporary art, which had well mounted, well explained exhibits. The second floor (first floor in Indian parlance) had a small but good collection of paintings. There were none by Tyeb Mehta or MF Hussein, but a lot of other greats were there. Jatin Das, Madhava Menon, Krishna Reddy, Jamini Roy, and of course India’s very own Rembrandt, Raja Ravi Varma. All, except the last, have fairly modern styles but the Indian ethos runs through and through all the paintings, and it’s hard to explain the sheer emotional impact of it. Red clay, pouring rain, curved brown bodies, ochre skies. Something about it just touches a chord. [...]