Kishore Singh has an article on the relative merits of some Indian museums as the country builds its art infrastructure. But in the process of discussing the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, he reveals that some of the most significant Indian Contemporary Art works that were bought at auction in recent years have all ended up in this same collection:
There is no gainsaying that KNMA is about the “biggest”, or “best” or “most expensive” with reference to modern art. You can speculate whether the Rs 16.4 crore it paid for the S H Raza painting, Saurashtra was worth it or not, whether Raqib Shaw’s Absence of God-VIII was more expensive or less, whether Bharti Kher’s most expensive work, The Skin Speaks a Language Not its Own deserved the Rs 6.5 crore. But its in-the-face brazenness in acquiring works that are iconic, or talked about, or at the very least large, has at least made it a talking point — whether among collectors or the hundreds (and hopefully, soon, thousands) of visitors daily who come in out of curiosity but are awe-struck by the kind of art they have not previously seen.
Size Does Matter (Business Standard)
