Veteran artist Tyeb Mehta passed away on July 2 earlier this year. He is the first Indian artist who fetched an amount of more than Rs1 crore at the secondary market few years ago and at the recently held Christie’s auction, one of his works from the Mahisasura series went under the hammer for more than Rs5 crore. Now meet the proud owner — art connoisseur Priyanka Gill.
About her journey with art, Gill says, “Art has always intrigued me. Due to my association with a magazine, I got the amazing opportunity to be part of a small team that took a collection of 87 paintings to London for an important auction at Bonhams. In a short span of time, I got to know the major artists. As we had to commission the paintings as well, I spent a lot of time with artists and important collectors who we paired with them to paint. It was hard work, but so much fun. At the end of it, I was well and truly bitten by the art bug.”
Gill not only appreciates the art works, but is also impressed by people who also form this creative world. The ones who top her favourites list are our modern masters Tyeb Mehta, MF Husain, SH Raza and FN Souza. She continues, “And apart from them, Anish Kapoor is doing some stunning work as is Subodh Gupta — their exhibitions are thought-provoking and a visual treat. I also enjoy Sujata Bajaj’s work.”
The first time Gill witnessed the pull of art was at the Tehelka-Bonham’s auction in London. 1600 people came for the auction. She remembers, “A lot of it was due to the fact that Shah Rukh Khan was painting live with Hussain Sahab, but the sheer spectacle of it was quite something. Personally, bidding live at the Christie’s auction in New York was really fun — the momentary high of knowing that you just outbid someone for a painting you really like is rather addictive and now, Mehta’s work is one of my most prized possessions.”
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