An artist creates art to please his own aesthetic senses. But there can be no doubt that like any other creative field, fine arts flourishes with the appreciation and patronage of a connoisseur.
While art events mostly celebrate an artist’s style and mastery over his medium, rarely does the world know about the person who buys the paintings and other art works that are constantly in the limelight through exhibitions. Indeed, art collectors are known to be an especially shy tribe, preferring anonymity to public attention.
It is to change this perception and celebrate one of India’s most prolific art collectors that in a first in the 65 years since its inception, National Museum in New Delhi is hosting an exhibition using a treasure trove donated by an individual.
Close to a hundred works of art, which art enthusiast C L Bharany and his father collected from across India, are being displayed for over a month in a specially designed gallery since July 11. Sculptures in stone, bronze and wood, paintings (on paper and cloth), manuscripts and textiles collected across two millennia are being showcased at the monthlong show titled A Passionate Eye, which is curated by three experts.
The exhibition, spread across 6,000 sqare feet of carpeted space, brings out select items from a donation of close to a thousand objects that Bharany made to the museum in 1976 in memory of his father. “It thus acknowledges one of the many people who have helped gather items of our cultural heritage,” says Venu V, director general of the National Museum. “It highlights the role private collectors play in enriching the nation’s public museums.”
Giles Tillotson, one of the curators of the exhibition, said that the Bharanys were among the most significant collectors of Indian art in the 20th century. “What is striking is not just the range and quality of the works they assembled; their contributions to the work of scholars and to the country’s museums are immense,” he said.
The exhibition, which Tillotson curates with Pramod Kumar K G and Mrinalini Venkateswaran of Eka Archiving Services, is designed by Siddhartha Chatterjee of Seechange.
The objects at the show are diverse in terms of social context, ranging from courtly art and elite items to rural and folk art. “Indeed, Bharany’s breadth of vision is a notable feature of his collection irrespective of where and when works were made and for whom. His eye picks up anything that is beautiful,” says curator Venkateswaran.
Through its design, the exhibition seeks to reflect variety and eclecticism. Objects are grouped sometimes by material such as textile and sometimes by subject matter or themes such as asceticism, irrespective of provenance and date to highlight the varied and layered links that inspire art collectors.
(Poonam Goel is a freelance journalist who contributes articles on visual arts for unboxedwriters.com)