Autistic Art Auction
Nets 6.65 lakhs & Proceeds to go to artists in full. Time to remove shibboleths of theoretical conditioning, time to be ambitious & embrace life
Let me announce the immense news first. For the first time in India an ambitious public purpose foray for children and young adults with Autism was made. And it recorded a grand success. Eleven lots of Autistic Art created by ten young artists on the autism spectrum were opened for bids on February 12 at The Lalit, New Delhi. All secured enthusiastic and competitive bids and were sold for a total value of Rs 6.65 lakhs averaging about Rs 55,000 per artwork. All proceeds will go to the artists.
The sale was part of a Charity auction conducted by Artrise Auctions, in association with Dhoomimal Art Gallery and Autypical.in.
Autypical.in, the public purpose digital platform for autistic artists, represented the Autistic artists.
Called ‘Colours of Joy’, the auction featured Drawings, Paintings, Print & Sculptures of Pre-Independence, Modern Masters, Contemporary & AuTypical Artists.
The auctioneer Angira Arya, went up to the autistic artists present, shook hands, presented their work and hit the gavel as each work got a final bid. One had to be there to witness how the psychological theories of autism pertaining to mindblindness, social communication deficits and attention disorders crumbled. Priyank, stood up, waved and said thank you. Nikhil raised his hand and smiled, Anubha walked up the aisle, feeling happy and shy at the same time. Suhrid, who is non-verbal, did an impromptu jig to claps and laughter. For far too long, theoretical precepts have stymied our thinking and conditioned our approaches. The habitual binaries of disability and incapacity are inhuman shibboleths of the past that need to be swept away. The sooner it is done, the better. Let ambition and life be unfurled.
Autistic art was the first lot that went under the hammer and found bidders. This was followed by the works of Iconic Masters like Amrita Sher-Gil, Anjolie Ela Menon, Arpana Caur, Newton Souza, G. R. Iranna, Ganesh Pyne, Jagdish Swaminathan, Jamini Roy, Manjit Bawa, Manu Parekh, Maqbool Fida Husain, Nandalal Bose and scores more; in all there were 87 lots in this genre.
You may view the auction results here: https://artriseart.com/auctions/multi-auction/339
For the past five months Autypical.in and Dhoomimal Gallery have relentlessly pursued the mainstreaming of autistic art as an Inclusion project.
Apart from the autistic artists being paid in full, Uday, Jain, Director, Dhoomimal Gallery reiterated his commitment to support events linked with autism awareness. He said, 20 per cent of the proceeds from the Dhoomimal Gallery’s collection will go towards the cause for creating awareness and opportunities.
He further averred, “We propose to take the art of the autistic community to the Outside Art Fair in Paris and New York. We believe that such showcasing of abilities will change the conversation around autism and mainstream members of the community to a life of dignity and social wellbeing. We were delighted to see the overwhelming response that AuTypical artists received at our recently conducted charity art auction ‘Colours of Joy’ ...their artworks recorded a 100% sale and raised over 6 Lacs with just 11 artworks (proceeds go directly to them) . We aim to include these artists more and more in our exhibitions and words of encouragement for this endeavor have stirred our sensibilities with a promise to take this forward effectively and constructively. ”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Sunaina Jain, Director Artrise Auctions. She said, “it was an encouraging response from people who placed advance online bids and most of them were present in the hall to raise paddles and contribute towards this noble initiative. More than that it was a moving experience to see the Autypical artists in the hall seeing their works go under the hammer and being applauded by the audiences. We all felt blessed seeing the happiness in their eyes.”
And here is another bravo news. Each day we are seeing enormous parental interest in Autypical.in. Particularly, parents who have autistic children with interest in visual arts write to me wanting to onboard the works of their children and inquire about opportunities for participating in art events. As chair, Autypical.in, my effort is to create vocational identities in fine arts of as many autistic children and youngsters as possible. More the merrier!
All of us: I, Uday, Sunaina and all of Autypical.in & Dhoomimal teams are committed to autism awareness and are in unison about promoting autistic art not just in India but internationally also.
The memories of the auction evening are still whirring in our minds. It was a fun-filled, energetically extravagant evening, imbued with an ethical purpose in which a packed audience appreciatively participated. It was hard work but it was also fun. It was also a grand finale to what had begun with Dhoomimal’s annual landmark event, the 31 st Ravi Jain Memorial Foundation Awards for Upcoming Artists, which for the first time integrated Autistic art and presented it in the professional grade. The exhibition was opened by The Hon’ble Union Minister of State (MoS) for Skill development & Entrepreneurship, Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar on September 29, 2022. About a month later at another high-octane event, Distinguished Artist, Padma Shri awardee Anjolie E. Menon, gave away the awards to upcoming artists. Two Artists from the Autypical cohort, Akash Shetty and Suhrid Das received the special mention by the jury.
Since pictures speak more than a thousand words ever can, photographs have been included in this column that document this tremendous journey. Enjoy!
At the Auction…..
