“Padma Shri is an honour, but there is a lot more work to be done”
72-year-old art collector Kiran Nadar talks about being bestowed the nation’s fourth highest civilian award, the new sprawling centre coming up in Aerocity
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that if Kiran Nadar wants it, she will have it. In the art auction world, she’s what they call a fighter bidder.
“I am very determined but there are so many works of art that are bought by other people. Some of those losses have hurt,” the founder-chairperson of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) — and the latest entrant in the Padma Shri pantheon — admits.
So, which one stung the most? Sitting inside the KNMA office in Saket, New Delhi, Nadar looks up as though plucking a memory from thin air, and replies, “It’s a bit of a strange story. Years ago, I was bidding for a painting by MF Husain. I really wanted it but it went to someone else. I wanted to know whom I had lost to, but there was no way of finding out,” she says. Then, in 2020, at the Saffronart’s Spring Live Auction of luxury items and artworks belonging to disgraced diamantaire Nirav Modi, she spotted the very same diptych she had set her heart on — the Battle of Ganga and Jamuna: Mahabharata 12. She purchased it for ₹13.44 crore. Talk about a karmic boomerang.
“Yes, it did feel like that at the time. I’m glad things worked in my favour,” says Nadar, who had flown in hours before from New York to inaugurate the exhibition, ‘Raghu Rai: A Thousand Eyes, Photographs from 1965-2005’.
Her love for the Bombay Progressives, especially Husain, runs deep. In April, the KNMA will present The Rooted Nomad, the first immersive exhibition of Husain’s life and work, at the Magazzini del Sale in Dorsoduro in Venice — this will go on till November, to coincide with the Venice Biennale.
“The exhibition will be free of charge to the public. It’s an honour to showcase Husain in Venice more than seven decades since his work was first exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1953,” Nadar says.
In April, she will also collect the nation’s fourth highest civilian award. The 72-year-old art collector, philanthropist, and international bridge player was conferred the honour for her contribution to the arts — a recognition that some say has been a long time coming.
A patron for decades
“Where would art be without patronage? While artists in India have been honoured in the past, no collector has been, so the Padma Shri will act as a catalyst for other collectors to build institutions and bequeath their collections to the forthcoming generations for whom, they are, after all, custodians of this art. Kiran Nadar was far-sighted about sharing her collection with people not just in India but around the world. From collecting to philanthropy, her generosity of spirit and knowledge will go a long way in building up the next platforms for art in the country,” says Ashish Anand, CEO and MD, DAG, and a reputed art collector in his own right.
Nadar’s patronage is intrinsically tied to institution building. The KNMA is a partner of the perennially short-of-funds Kochi Biennale, helping them promote art education for all age groups. At the recently concluded 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy, KNMA showed a prototype of a cultural complex it plans to create. The forthcoming 100,000-metre square building in Aerocity has been designed by the celebrated British-Ghanian architect Sir David Adjaye.
“It will be a permanent museum that will showcase the entire KNMA collection. But it will be a space to celebrate not only the visual arts but dance, music, and more. The new KNMA will only be ready in 2026, but we’re not waiting that long to kick things off,” says Nadar.
And to think that an entire museum or two would never have come about if it hadn’t been for Nadar simply buying too much art for her home.
The making of a museum
“I’d travelled the world and seen how people would purchase or commission art for their homes. When Shiv [Nadar, chairperson of HCL Enterprise] and I were building our home, I didn’t want to stick [frames] randomly on the walls. I don’t think I’d ever bid for something like a Van Gogh because I don’t have the nerve, and I want to collect as much Indian art as possible,” says Nadar.
KNMA was founded in 2010, around the time she noted that she had about 400-odd works and nowhere to display them. “Keeping them in storage is a disservice, I thought I should do something about it but let me tell you, starting an art museum in a mall area has been nothing but a learning experience,” she says. For non-Delhi residents, KNMA is located near the Select Citywalk Mall in Saket.
It already had a space in the HCL campus in Noida, but opening another venue in Saket posed a major challenge: did mall-goers want to step into an art museum?
“Not really. For years, we have concentrated on generating footfall. It helped that we owned the building or else we’d have shut shop years ago,” Nadar says.
In recent years, the idea of the art museum itself has come under scrutiny. If most of the art that is displayed belongs to a handful of collectors, how do we understand these institutions as 'public' spaces? While the museum is a repository of collective memory and culture, private ownership complicates the function of the art museum, socially and economically. The picture, so to speak, is a complicated one.
A boost to the art market
KNMA’s engagement with artists is another truth universally acknowledged in the art world.
“One of India’s biggest collectors of Modern and Contemporary Art brought art to non-gallery goers through this space. Nadar and KNMA’s chief curator, Roobina Karode, and their team have dedicated themselves to open art up for the common folk via exhibitions, publications, art talks, workshops and soirees,” says Georgina Maddox, a curator and writer. She points out that while art needs collectors who purchase art to build a private collection, KNMA offers infrastructural support for contemporary artists. “They’ve supported performance artists such as Nikhil Chopra, and the KNMA not only does shows in India but also abroad. They’ve used their international presence to support an artist like Bharti Kher to exhibit at New York’s Central Park. Roobina curated the visual artist Jayashree Chakravarty’s show in Paris,” Maddox adds.
Nadar doesn’t see any conflict of interest in her role as a collector and her support of specific artists in ways that can influence the trajectory of their careers beyond their lifetime.
“When we did the first comprehensive Himmat Shah retrospective in 2016, it brought him a lot of well-deserved attention and a host of new, good collectors. He had not anticipated that,” says Nadar, who owns 215 of the 300 works that were exhibited.
The other artist whom Nadar and the KNMA are proud to have championed is Nasreen Mohamedi — an artist who had a ferocious, but very small, following before Nadar shone the spotlight on her. “Her work got the most out of our exhibition in 2013. From then on, her work travelled to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, and on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. And the worth of her work just shot up,” says Nadar.
The Indian art market, roughly estimated at ₹3,000 crore or $4 million, has been steadily growing for the past decade — but it’s a fraction compared to other global art markets.
The global art market is currently valued at approximately $67.8 billion and three countries rule the roost: The United States, the United Kingdom and China, in that order. Together, they are responsible for 80% of the total sales value. China, the leader in Asia, accounts for 17% of the global art market and is in second place when it comes to the contemporary art market, with sales amounting to $744 million. Only two other Asian countries feature in the top 10 for contemporary art sales: Japan ($40 million) and South Korea ($21 million).
A report published last year by the Indian Art Investor, a Delhi-based art market intelligence firm, recorded that nearly 60% of the artworks sold in March 2023 went for prices over their estimates. In tandem, there has been a “gallery culture” that is mushrooming in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. “Sometimes with the wealth of art around us, it takes time to form that space. A lot of experimental spaces are finding their own niche and developing across genres. Collectors form an essential part of the arts ecosystem because they can extend great support by working with galleries to programme interesting exhibitions in their spaces and help generate the arts discourse and publications. Considering the talent that India has, I would presume that a lot more corporate houses would increase the pace of acquiring artworks and open spaces to share these collections. This would also make for curating, making sense of a collection and historicising the visual arts,” says Shalini Sawhney, director, The Guild (Mumbai/New York).
In the recent past, the KNMA has programmed shows at Sunder Nursery in New Delhi; this month, they are presenting the Legacy Series: Performing Arts at the Gandharva Mahavidyala at Kamani Auditorium on February 9. The series will shine a spotlight on multi-generational families in the arts and the stories behind them, and will celebrate the Mudgal family — comprising Gandharva Mahavidyalaya founder, Professor Vinay Chandra Maudgalya, his son Madhup Mudgal, a Hindustani classical musician, and daughter, Madhavi Mudgal, a famed Odissi dancer — in its first edition.
Nadar’s involvement, and interest, in the arts have certainly been recognised by the Indian government that bestowed the Padma Shri on her. But for Nadar, the work is never done. “The Padma Shri is an acknowledgement of work that has been done so far but there is still so much more to do. I'm very honoured to receive it, although I can't say it came as a surprise. The award that did surprise me was when the French government conferred upon me their highest civilian award, the prestigious "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur" (Knight of the Legion of Honour) [last year],” she said.
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