Tyeb Mehta’s ‘Trussed Bull’ sold for 61.8 crore, becomes second most expensive work of Indian art sold at an auction | Art-and-culture News

Inspired the image of a trussed bull made in Egyptian bas-relief he encountered in 1954 at the British Museum in London — where he was residing at the time — Tyeb Mehta’s 1956 canvas Trussed Bull has fetched a staggering Rs 61.80 crore, making it the second most expensive work of Indian art to be sold at an auction, sharing the position with Amrita Sher-Gil’s The Storyteller that sold for the same price in September 2023.
Mehta’s oil painting of the bull, which came up for sale from his estate, commanded the sum in a packed hall during the 25th Anniversary Live Sale of Saffronart in Mumbai on April 2.
The current record for the most expensive work of Indian art to be auctioned is held MF Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra) that sold at a Chrie’s auction in New York for Rs 118 crore last month.
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Discussing Mehta’s work as one of the highlights of the auction ahead of the sale, Dinesh Vazirani, co-founder and CEO of Saffronart, had stated: “The remarkable sophication of this painting lies not only in the potency of Tyeb’s imagery but also in his ability to dill his subject to its most essential form. He renders the bull with thick, precise black lines, echoing the style of his drawings from the same period. The thick impasto colour fields highlight the equal importance he accorded to colour, space and structure. This emphasis later evolved into flat, fractured planes of colour that became a defining feature of his style from the late 1960s onwards.”
Tyeb Mehta (Wikimedia Commons)
The Kapadvanj (Gujarat)-born art, who graduated from the Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai in 1952, became captivated the bull figure during his student years. He frequently observed these powerful animals at the Kennedy Bridge in South Bombay and a slaughterhouse in the Bandra suburbs. He was deeply moved the stark contrast between their raw strength and the cruelty of their captivity. Explaining the significance of the bull in his art in an interview with art horian and curator Yashodhara Dalmia (cited in the auction lot essay), he had stated, “As the discovery of an image, the trussed bull was important for me on several levels. As a statement of great energy… blocked or tied up. The way they tie up the animal’s legs and fling it on the floor of the slaughterhouse before butchering it… you feel something very vital has been lost.”

Appearing in several of his works, the imagery of the trussed bull was both a metaphor for humanity’s failure to realise its full potential and an expression of Mehta’s feelings of entrapment circumstance. It symbolised his desire to overcome suffering, reflecting his inner turmoil and the haunting memories of the Partition. The traumatic experience of witnessing a man being slaughtered in the street outside his house during the Partition riots, when he was in his early 20s, left an indelible mark on both his mind and his work.
A member of the famed Progressive Arts’ Group established in Mumbai in 1947, the art was also a trained film editor who lived in London from 1959 to 1964, and visited the US on a Rockefeller Fund Scholarship in 1968. Awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2007 for his contribution to Indian art, his works are in prominent museum collections the world over. This year also marks the birth centenary of Mehta, who passed away in 2009.
In addition to Mehta’s work, the auction featured several other works that sold for prices far exceeding their estimates, making it “the highest value sale of South Asian art ever achieved at an auction” — recording a figure of Rs 217.81 crore.Story continues below this ad
Speaking to The Indian Express after the sale of MF Husain’s Untitled (Gram Yatra), Vazirani said: “Over the last few years, the Indian art market became very vibrant with both Indian and non-Indian buyers showing serious interest. Art is now ingrained in people’s minds where they are curious, keen on acquiring the best and acknowledging value based on the importance of a painting… Strong capital markets, rising incomes, and easier access to art and information have driven demand… Notably, this is the first time a work Husain has led the Indian art market with a world record, something previously achieved arts like S H Raza, Tyeb Mehta, Amrita Sher-Gil and VS Gaitonde. This breakthrough is likely to influence the prices of these arts too, driving upward movement for key pieces that hold both horical significance and importance in the broader context of Indian art.”