A passion for art in Delhi

 |  February 25, 2010
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You can either buy clothes or buy pictures," iconic art collector Gertrude Stein had once famously said. In this age of material girls and boys, that sounds a bit retro. But Rasika Kajaria, 30, can identify with it. "I would rather spend my money on art than jewellery," she says.

As Kajaria takes you around her Sainik Farms home, you begin to understand her love for art. Every room boasts a statement piece: a 10x5 ft digital-on-paper by Pakistanborn artist Seher Shah weaving a dark fantasy next to a decorative montage by Hema Upadhyay in the drawing room. A plastic-bottlesand-stickers installation by Prajjwal Choudhury, announcing Nothing Endures But Change, in the lounge. A bleeding fish by Mithu Sen (with an unpacked Chitra Ganesh waiting to scale a wall) in the library. If you are wondering about the one bare wall in the living room, rest easy. It's waiting for a Jitish Kallat's Carbon Milk series that Kajaria has been eyeing for a while. "'We'll soon have to start collecting apartments to keep your art', my husband tells me," she tinkles with laughter.

That might just turn true, given that art has been almost the same as falling in love for Kajaria. She began to buy up art to set up her new home, the way she wanted to, after marriage. First came a 3x5 ft canvas by Paramjit Sen, purchased for a lakh in 2001 ("as a Hussain was beyond my budget"). Then came the Gujrals, Paritosh Sens, Paresh Maitys and Anjali Ela Menons. "The process of knowing my husband and learning art have been equally long," she says. She now wants to take her passion forward and is opening a gallery to promote young artists.

Kajaria's passion for art may sound exaggerated, but in fact, there is an entire generation of young art collectors who think like her. They are the new kids on the art block, who believe in putting their money where their passion lies. "They buy what they love, rather than what is investment worthy," says Aparajita Jain, director, Seven Art. "So it's fun working with them."

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Meet Mandira Nath. This 34-year-old skin therapist and makeup artist started collecting way back in 2000, "when art wasn't as ridiculously expensive." Having trained with Anjali Ela Menon, a family friend who would often come over to their Mumbai home to paint, she developed a flair for painting at a young age. "When I started earning, I decided to start buying art," she says.

"I began to educate myself by reading up on the history of art and visiting galleries and exhibitions." That seems to have paid off as she has a formidable collection today, comprising the likes of Raza, Akbar Padamsee, Amrita Sher-Gil, M.F. Hussain, A. Ramachandran, Arpita Singh, Manjit Bawa, Anjali Ela Menon to Dhruvi Acharya, Rajnish Kaur, Nikhil Chopra and Aditya Pande. It's a dream collection whose prices have increased five-even ten-fold in recent years.

Yet, Nath is unwilling to talk about how much all this is worth. "I didn't buy it for investment, but as something that made me happy. That it turned out to be a good investment is icing on the cake," she says. For instance, the Rajnish Kaur, her first artwork, acquired for Rs 60,000 back in 2001, is worth Rs 5-8 lakh today, while a Ramachandran bought for Rs 50,000 in 2000 is worth about Rs 7 lakh now. Needless to say, she hasn't sold a work till date. "Each painting has formed a character in its corner of my house and the thought of letting it go is painful."

While collecting art was once considered the hobby of tycoons, the boom in contemporary Indian art in the last decade not only led to a boom in galleries, but has also initiated a generation of nouveau riche collectors who had an insouciance about spending enormous amounts for works they wanted-pushing prices through the roof. According to Mukesh Panika, the head of Religare's Art Initiative, "The sustainability of art is also contingent upon the expansion of the notion of patronage in more ways than one. Traditionally, there have been very few patrons who bought art, but in the past 10 years the scenario has been changing. There are a lot of new entrants in the art realm, and amongst them are a sizeable chunk of young collectors as well."


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