Tyeb Mehta Centennial Retrospective at KNMA
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The retrospective assumes significance as the rise of Tyeb Mehta’s artworks in the market heralded the birth of Indian art market itself two decades ago
The year 2025 was significant for Indian art for various reasons. Among other things, it marked a few milestones, such as the centenary of Tyeb Mehta, one of India’s foremost modernists, and the 20th anniversary of the first million dollar sale of an Indian work of art at an international auction, which, incidentally, also belonged to Tyeb Mehta, forever associating his name with the birth of the Indian art market itself.
A grand retrospective on the art of Tyeb Mehta, therefore, seems in the fitness of things at this juncture in time. A centennial retrospective is being presented by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, in association with Saffronart and the Tyeb Mehta Foundation, which gets underway on February 4, 2026.
Tyeb Mehta, born on July 26, 1925, became synonymous with the birth of the Indian art market well within his lifetime. On September 21, 2005, his work Mahishasura sold for $1.584 million at a Christie’s auction in New York, becoming the first Indian work of art to cross the million dollar mark. Mehta’s name, thus, became etched in stone, the most vital reference point for any conversation on the Indian art market. As subsequent years have shown, apart from a course correction that the market endured post Lehmann Brothers’ meltdown and consequent global economic recession of 2008, Indian art market has only travelled north since then.
In that journey of the art market, Tyeb Mehta’s works have always remained at the forefront, occupying either number one or number two position every time the Indian art market has pushed the envelope further. For instance, at the end of 2025, the list of Top 10 works of Indian art ever sold, comprises a total of 12 canvases, of which 4 belong to Tyeb Mehta, followed by two each by V. S. Gaitonde, S. H. Raza and F. N. Souza, and one each by Amrita Sher-Gil and M. F. Husain.
These four works by Mehta are: Trussed Bull, 1956, (tied at #4 spot with an Amrita Sher-Gil work), which sold for Rs 61.8 crore at a Saffronart auction in April 2025; another oil on canvas titled Trussed Bull, also from 1956, (at position #6) which sold for Rs 56.4 crore at a Saffronart auction in September 2025; Untitled (Gesture), 1977 (at position #7 along with a work by S. H. Raza), which sold for Rs 53.54 crore at AstaGuru in December 2025; and, Untitled (Bull on Rickshaw), which sold at Saffronart for Rs 41.97 crore in April 2022.
Given the pre-eminence consistently being enjoyed by Tyeb Mehta’s works right since his Mahishasura inaugurated the onward march of the Indian art market, a Centennial Retrospective will definitely bring a golden opportunity to get a comprehensive look at the lifetime’s oeuvre of an artist who did not paint prolifically but marked milestones for Indian art with whatever he painted.