Kishore Singh tells the story behind Kiran Nadar’s art collection in the Business Standard. The wife of an Indian billionaire, Nadar is one of India’s few serious collectors who spend $1 million a year on art. Now she’s raised the stakes by turning her collection into a museum:
Till yesterday, these were just paintings on her walls, stuff you might expect the wife of the $5 billion technology czar to have bought for pleasure, or even on a whim. Today, things have changed. Others might covet the Husains and Razas, but these and other works, the space, the displays and the diligence that have been brought to the effort, will also be judged by serious professionals: curators and critics, artists and gallery owners, and even a whisper of criticism might damage the standing of this private museum of modern and contemporary art. […]
Actually, it isn’t a huge collection — yet — but what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in volume. In numbers, it must be no more than 300-odd works. Nor has it been collected purposefully. “It isn’t encyclopaedic, it has obvious gaps and an uneven nature for people from an art background who’re trained to see in a time-line,” says Roobina, “but what is so exciting is that it’s a growing collection,” one for which an advisory board has been established and which, she says, “will think deeply of the process of collecting works”. Kiran, though, says she would “at least like the freedom to buy as I choose, though I’m open to advice”.
First Day, First Show (Business Standard)
