Antique Collecting articles Preview - Masterpiece London

This year for the first time Masterpiece will host a pavilion devoted to
Asian Art. Indian art expert Rob Dean, who will be exhibiting
paintings by Maqbool Fida Husain, reveals the enduring appeal
of India’s ‘barefoot Picasso’

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber looks at a Lowry on Crane Kalman’s stand at last year’s event

Now in its sixth year, Masterpiece London is widely considered the
most prestigious event of the capital’s summer art season.

MAQBOOL FIDA HUSAIN (1913-2012) is
one of the most highly-regarded and influential
Indian artists of the 20th century. Among
friends and collectors he is remembered for his
energy, generosity and his infectious personality.
At the height of his career his friend and
gallerist, Kali Pundole said of him ‘Husain is
sensitive, perceptive and in tune with his
environment. Seeing him at work fills me with
wonder and the confidence and the accuracy
of each stroke, and the wizardry of his colours
never fails to amaze me.’
It was Husain’s lifelong love of India,
expressed through his drawings and canvases
that won him critical acclaim. In many of his
paintings including the untitled canvas from
1959 (illustrated right), Husain demonstrates
his inclination towards portraying faceless and
contemplative women. This abstracted
method of female portraiture is often
explained by the loss of his mother at an early
age, but it may also reflect the artist’s desire to
paint intimate stories laden with hidden
symbolism, that express simultaneously both

personal and universal themes.
The subject of a lone female with a bird is
a common composition in classical Indian
paintings where the Nayika, or lover, in the
absence of her lover is consoled by the singing
of a pet bird. Unlike the delicate figures of
miniature painting his figure sits monumental
and archetypal, a symbol of feminine power
and fecundity. She has become a universal
symbol of the female, or in Indian terms the
Shakti, who has struggled with the woes of the
world and overcome them.
Despite political and art historical critics,
even after his death, Husain remains a pivotal
figure in the Indian art scene today. Concerns
that the market would be flooded with his
work after his death, have now subsided, and
if the recent prices achieved at auction are
anything to go by his popularity with
collectors is only growing. Husain who
famously walked the streets of India barefoot
throughout his long career retains the love
and admiration of a vast portion of the Indian
population. If we consider a few of his best

Maqbool Fida Husain, Untitled, oil on canvas, 1959,
30½in x 20½in (77.5 x 52.1 cm)

works, and consider them in the context of
time and place, we will see that this
admiration is not misplaced.
Rob Dean worked as Christie’s specialist in
Modern Indian Paintings, before joining
Sotheby’s as its International Head of the
Indian and Southeast Asian Art Department.
For more details visitwww.robdeadart.com.

THREE TO WATCH
Masterpiece London 2014 was robust, with
more than £100m worth of art sold and
more than 35,000 visitors attending the eightday event. Last year’s success was due, say
organisers, to an increased number of private
sales and purchases from world-renowned
institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts
Boston, Rijksmuseum, MoMA, British Museum,
V&A, The Getty and Tate.
Masterpiece CEO Nazy Vassegh, said:
“Looking at the evolution of the fair from the
grass roots stage in 2010 to generating more

than £100m worth of sales in 2014, I feel our
identity as an internationally important crosscollecting fair has been proven and that we
are a commercial and cultural success. 2015
promises to be a seminal year.”
Significant additions to this year’s fair
include London fine art gallery, Richard
Green; Parisian decorative arts dealer,
Kraemer Gallery; Van Cleef & Arpels from
France and Germany’s Hemmerle.
Ms Vassegh continued: “The fair offers
unrivalled opportunities for collectors and

enthusiasts to meet international specialists
from a diverse range of disciplines and to
purchase some of the finest and rarest
works available in the current market.”
Martin Travis, from regular exhibitor
Symbolic & Chase, said: “Masterpiece has
matured into a fair that features on the
international calendar for serious collectors
and dealers alike. The visitors don’t just
sightsee, we enjoyed significant sales in 2014
and look forward to this year’s event.”

FACT FILE
Where? The South Grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London SW3 4SR.
When? June 25-July 1 (preview on June 24 from 11-10pm) then daily until July 1 from 11-9pm, June 27
and 28 open from 11-7pm and on June 30 from 11-6pm.
Admission: Full access allowing unlimited entry to all public days between June 25 and July 1, £42. General
admission for a day £25.
Website: www.masterpiecefair.com.
Push the boat out: Tickets to this year’s art gala reception from 7-8.30pm on June 30 in aid of the NSPCC
cost £100. The evening includes a silent auction, live entertainment, champagne and canapés,
Subscriber ticket offer: Antique Collecting subscribers can received two tickets, for the price of one. Visit
www.antique-collecting.co.uk, click on ‘Masterpiece ticket offer’ and enter the code ANTC2015 (not
available for June 18).

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Highlight
Celebrity spotting. Last
year’s attendees included
Rod Stewart and Penny
Lancaster, Eddie
Redmayne, Clive Owen,
Charles Saatchi, Jasper
Conran, Diana Rigg and
Zandra Rhodes.

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