Christie’s Mumbai Preview Celebrates Tyeb Mehta and Krishen Khanna at 100

Christie’s Mumbai presents a rare opportunity to witness two landmark works of Indian modern art as it honours the centenary years of Tyeb Mehta and Krishen Khanna. Born just weeks apart in July 1925, both artists are celebrated for their distinct yet equally powerful contributions to Indian visual culture. From 4 to 9 August 2025, Christie’s Mumbai will host a preview of highlights from its upcoming New York auction of South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, scheduled for 17 September.

Leading this presentation are two major works. Tyeb Mehta’s Trussed Bull, painted in 1994 and estimated between 1.5 and 2.5 million US dollars, and Krishen Khanna’s Bandwallas in Procession from 1995, with an estimate of 60,000 to 80,000 US dollars. Both paintings reflect the artists’ lifelong commitment to capturing the complexity of the human condition.

A Monument to Human Struggle

Tyeb Mehta’s Trussed Bull is a deeply emotive painting that speaks to themes of violence, struggle, and restraint. The image of the bull remained a central motif in Mehta’s practice for over fifty years. According to Nishad Avari, Head of Christie’s South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art department,

“The bull is a seminal image for Mehta. The futile struggles of trussed bulls in slaughterhouses exemplified for Mehta the conditions of indignity and constriction in the everyday life of the common man. The bull in this painting is a monument to this sentiment.”

Mehta’s exploration of this motif began in the 1950s and evolved over decades. In 1970, he briefly returned to filmmaking with Koodal, a short film that featured disjointed and powerful imagery, including a striking scene of a slaughtered bull. Later, his Mahishasura series reimagined the bull in mythological and metaphysical terms. Trussed Bull stands as a culmination of these ideas, a potent symbol of human suffering and resistance.

An Ongoing Chronicle

Krishen Khanna’s Bandwallas in Procession takes a different but equally compelling approach. A large and vibrant painting from 1995, it captures a group of brass band musicians in mid-performance. These figures have long populated Khanna’s canvases, embodying both celebration and melancholy.

Sonal Singh, Chairman of Christie’s India, remarks,

“The ‘bandwallas’ in their tragicomic celebration of the joyous occasions of people who are strangers to them, perfectly encompass the pathos of the common man.”

Khanna remains the last surviving artist from India’s first generation of modernists. His work reflects a deep empathy for working people and a keen awareness of the psychological textures of urban life. Alongside Bandwallas, Christie’s will also offer important early abstract works from the 1960s that Khanna created after his travels through Asia and the United States. These works stem from his pioneering time as the first Indian recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s cultural fellowship.

A Return to the Beginning

Also featured in the Mumbai preview is Vasudeo S. Gaitonde’s Untitled from 1984, estimated at 2 to 3 million US dollars. This canvas first appeared in Christie’s historic 1987 charity auction for Helpage India, held at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. That event marked Christie’s earliest sale in the country and laid the groundwork for its long-term engagement with the Indian art market.

Since establishing a permanent representative office in Mumbai in 1994, Christie’s has played a key role in connecting Indian artists and collectors with global audiences. Under the leadership of Sonal Singh, the house continues to champion the breadth and depth of South Asian art.

Looking Ahead to New York

The preview in Mumbai serves as a prelude to the live auction in New York on 17 September 2025. This season’s sale not only commemorates the centenaries of two seminal figures in Indian art but also affirms the growing international appreciation for South Asian modernism.