Auction introduction: This season’s Modern & Contemporary South Asian auction takes a comprehensive look at artwork from the region, showcasing paintings and works on paper from across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Spanning the 20th and 21st centuries, the upcoming sale features trailblazers of South Asian art, creators who questioned convention and pioneered their own visual languages. Sourced from across the United States and from around the world, the works in this auction indicate the extraordinary reach of South Asian art and its appreciation amongst the international art community. The sale is led by a seminal work by Maqbool Fida Husain, Second Act (1958), which is the most widely published and frequently exhibited work ever sold in this category at Sotheby’s. This history includes important books such as Harry N. Abram’s Husain monograph (1971) and MoMA Oxford’s India: Myth and Reality show (1982). Other highlights in the auction are a Francis Newton Souza published in Edwin Mullin’s F N Souza monograph (1962), a Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar shown in the landmark Geneva show Coups de Coeur (1987), a K.C.S. Paniker from the Words and Symbols series, and other fresh-to-market property from artists such as Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Jagdish Swaminathan, Ram Kumar, Bhupen Khakhar, Anwar Jalal Shemza and Zainul Abedin.