25 years ago, Saffronart founders Dinesh and Minal Vazirani set out to make Indian art more accessible. They succeeded

Source Vogue India by Muskan Mumtaz
When Dinesh and Minal Vazirani co-founded Saffronart in 2000, they weren’t just building a digital auction platform, they were tapping into a quiet but decisive cultural shift. At a moment when Indian art remained under-recognised on the global stage, they envisioned a future shaped not by external endorsement but by internal conviction. With backgrounds in consulting and engineering, the couple represented a new kind of tastemaker—one fluent in both global systems and local histories. They met at a Thanksgiving dinner in San Francisco, a chance encounter that would eventually spark a romance as well as a shared vision for the future of Indian art. “People thought we were crazy,” Minal recalls. “Our own families thought we were a little bit, you know, silly to do this.”
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9 artists break auction records at Sotheby’s South Asian sale.

Source Artsy by Maxwell Rabb
“Breaking nine world records for multiple artists from across South Asia, the auction once again showcased the strength and depth of this category,” said Manjari Sihare Sutin, Sotheby’s specialist and co-worldwide head of modern and contemporary South Asian art. “Sotheby's is proud to be building and expanding the conversation beyond what the world considers blue-chip modern Indian art.” The headline sale was Indian artist Jagdish Swaminathan’s triptych Homage to Solzhenitsyn (1973), which sold for $4.68 million, far exceeding its estimate of $1 million–$2 million. The artist’s previous auction record was set in December 2024 at Bonhams for Untitled (1991), which sold for $987,600.
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The cycle of life in Manu Parekh's 'Flower Sutra' at Nature Morte

Source Stir World by Manu Sharma
Parekh has been creating art since the 1970s and has engaged with religious themes across his career. His 2017 works such as The Last Supper and Image of Goddess—which references the Hindu goddess Durga—carry an overt religiosity. Meanwhile, his famous Banaras series, which began in the 1980s, captures the vibrancy of the holy city, mixing depictions of its temple architecture with Hindu symbolism, such as the delicate eyes associated with the divine figure Vishnu (who is known by some as Kamalnayan or ‘lotus-eyes’), and the Tripundra—a forehead marking with three horizontal lines—symbolising the deity Shiva’s command over wisdom, willpower and action. Many of the works at Nature Morte continue his fascination with the divine, though here he expresses this through his depictions of flowers. The gallery’s press release quotes the artist, stating, "Where there is faith, there will be the presence of flowers. Life, birth, marriage and death: flowers will be there. I have visited the Vatican, Ajmer, Nizamuddin Auliya's dargah, gurudwaras and Banaras. There were only two things common to all these places: faith and flowers."
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At 87, Arpita Singh Is Getting Her First Solo Show Outside of India.

Source Culture D by Giuliana Brida
Born in what is now the state of West Bengal in 1937, Singh didn’t foresee a life in the arts until her school principal nudged her along. “I didn’t know there was … a field called ‘art,’” she told Obrist. It wasn’t until her first year of college at Delhi Polytechnic that she visited an art museum, the National Gallery of Modern Art. Since emerging in the arts scene in the late 1960s, Singh has built a body of work that melds abstraction with traditional Indian court painting. The latter has a long history of blending the mythological and the quotidian, an enduring aspect of Singh’s work. “Remembering” spans large-scale oil paintings, intricate watercolors, and ink drawings. Her freedom of thought permeates the expansive show, in which recurring motifs—planes, fruits, and fragmented figures—evoke what Nietzsche described as the “eternal return,” a cyclical rhythm that feels at once personal and generationally universal. “I believe, then I doubt. I believe, and I doubt again,” Singh has said. “That’s the whole process of my work.”
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Crafts & Conversations: Swadesh celebrates accomplished women artisans

Source The New Indian Express by Nitika Krishna
The energies in the room were indescribably powerful — we listened intently as they told us about their lives and the crafts they were so passionate about. On International Women’s Day, six accomplished women artisans graced the dais at the Swadesh store in Jubilee Hills for 'Crafts & Conversations - Celebrating the Women Champions of Craft and Creative Traditions'. Moderated by Tanya Chaitanya, CEO and editor-in-chief, Her Circle (Digital & Diversity, Reliance), the conversation was heartwarmingly insightful. Sunetra Lahiri, a national award recipient for design innovation in aari and zardosi, spoke about how these embroidery forms are integral to the industry. The designer from West Bengal said her inspirations were Maa Durga and Maa Kali. "I am also an environmentalist; one of my works is 'Chlorophyll'. The idea is simple: We abuse this planet. But to take revenge, it doesn't have to do much," she noted. Claps reverberated as she underscored our duty to the planet.
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11 new art shows in India we’re excited about this March

Source Vogue India by Huzan Tata
French photojournalist Marc Riboud was one of the most celebrated lensmen of the 20th century, having clicked several historical and political events of his era. This retrospective exhibition presents Riboud’s powerful images of the refugee crisis that unfolded after the Bangladeshi Liberation War in and around Calcutta in 1971. Featuring over 43 hard-hitting photographs ranging from the Battle of Jamalpur to the fall of Dhaka, the aftermath of the War and Kolkata as a centre of refuge, the showcase gives viewers a humanitarian, intimate glimpse of a time of great upheaval, while also presenting images emanating hope and resilience—a true testament to Riboud’s mastery with his camera.
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