PRIVATE EYE

Bose Krishnamachari
“An artist as a collector has a passionate approach informed by the history of practice. I don’t think about an artist’s age,race or region he/she belongs to,since art is ageless,” says 46-year-old Krishnamachari,who owns a 1,000-strong collection of multimedia works,paintings and sculptures.
Krishnamachari usually avoids established names and looks for fresh talent. “Recession is the best time to collect,” he says with a chuckle. The artist has collected work by artists C K Rajan,Tejal Shah,Prajakta Potnis,Anoop Mathew Thomas,Jon Kessler Robert Breshtle,Wang Quing Song besides familiar names like Sudarshan Shetty,Riyas Komu,Shilpa Gupta,T. V. Santosh and Justin Ponmany. He has Andy Warhol’s shoe sculpture and Damien Hirst’s pop-art polka dot work that captured the hippie culture of Britain in the mid-60s.
His first purchase was in 1992,a small painting by M.B. Ingle,dean of J J School of Art,the teacher who would go on to expel him from the institution shortly after. “I’ve become a serious collector only in the last five years,” he says. Much of his collection is stored in crates since there isn’t much space in his Mumbai home to display them. Some prize pieces are in his Kerala house,which he has designed. Which is his most precious acquisition? “They are like children to me. I would pine if any one goes missing,” he says.

Krishen Khanna
The Delhi-based artist has been a good friend to many artists of his time. His collection has been put together through the “old school” method of exchanges and gifts. “I did,however,once blow my entire salary of Rs 350 to buy a Prantnath Margo landscape,” says the 81-year-old. Khanna has collected rare names like Harkrishan Lal,who he showed at the Bombay Art Society. Two miniature works by Lal,Melons to Market and Drum beaters at a festival,“gave rise to a movement that blossomed in Lahore in 1943-44,” he says.
Other gems in his collection are a huge black-and-white Akbar Padamsee,in three parts,titled Greek Landscape,a Husain canvas,Holi,bought for Rs 60 and works by artists from a generation before Khanna— an NN Rimzon wall hanging and a small sculpture by Mohan Samant. “I also have two very important Ram Kumar landscapes and two F.N. Souza drawings —one a sketch from his mechanical works series and another doodled on a news-sheet,a pain-filled rendition of Christ.”

Gulammohammed Sheikh
The first work in the Sheikhs’ small and select collection of about 20 paintings was a gift,from Bhupen Khakhar,the father of Indian kitsch. Khakhar,like Gulammohammed and Nilima,lived and worked in Vadodara. “I have mostly works which friends like Nasreen Mohammadi,Bhupen Khakhar and Jyoti Bhatt have gifted it to me,” says 72-year-old Sheikh. The professor-artist says that an artist constructs his collection differently from a collector: “From an artists’ collection,one can gain insight into his/her persona.”

Jeram Patel
Vadodara artist Jeram Patel,79,was one of the more dedicated collectors of his time. Patel started early and has rare works by artists like Ram Kumar. His collection includes works by his close friend Nasreen Mohammadi,Gulammohammed Sheikh,Bhupen Khakhar,K G Subramanyan,Paramjit Singh,Arpita Singh,and the early drawings of Satish Gujral. The Nasreens are his most treasured as is a canvas by Arpita Singh,an artist whose works are very hard to come by. “I collected these works not for money but pleasure,though I am aware that today they would fetch 10 times the amount I bought them for,” says Patel.