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CURRENTLY RUNNING SPACE 118, A STUDIO SPACE FOR ARTISTS IN SOUTH CENTRAL MUMBAI, SALONI TAKES US THROUGH HER ART COLLECTION THAT SPANS OVER 300 WORKS, HER LOVE FOR KALIGHAT PAINTINGS AND THE JOY OF COLLECTING YOUNG ARTISTS
EARLY INTRODUCTION
“My immediate family has never been into collecting art, yet my mother who hails from Kolkata trained me in all the classical forms of art – whether it was Bharatnatyam, Hindustani classical vocals, playing the harmonium and oil painting or portrait paintings. So, an art sensibility was always within me. My mother’s brother would take me to galleries and art schools like Shantiniketan from a very young age and that built my interest even more deeply.”
JAMINI ROY – THE DEAL BREAKER
“To hone my interest in art, I did a nine-month internship with Osian Fine Arts auction house, before leaving for London to pursue my MSc in Media and Communications at the LSE. Just then, when I returned I met Jamini Roy’s great granddaughter who had come over for a meal and to sell some of her family heirlooms to me. At that time, I didn’t have any money as I was still dependent on my parents and had no income of my own. My parents refused to buy any of it merely saying it was just a piece of paper and that I painted better! So, it was only when I started working that I actually started collecting art from my salary. My first cheque book is very interesting, as all the entries are towards art purchases in 2004.” FIRST SELF-ACQUIRED ARTWORK “It was a Laxma Goud Portrait of a Lady, I bought it for Rs 15,000 from a gallery in Hyderabad which has remained with me forever. Then I happened to meet Laxma many years later on one of my trips to Hyderabad through a common friend and he gifted me another etching with the original plate. He wrote on the work, ‘My Love, Saloni’. And I was deeply flattered – all this when I was only 25!”
THE JOY OF COLLECTING
“The biggest joy of collecting is catching them (artists) young and watching them grow. I collect contemporary art – which is the art of my times. There is no fun in buying the masters, as it is then simply a function of how much money you have at your disposal to buy the best moderns. I visit galleries, art fairs, biennales all over the world and even Documenta (all the way in Kassel, Germany) to train my eye and to satiate my quest for knowledge and curiosity of what lies beyond India.”
MUSEUM HOPPING
“I don’t have one favourite museum – but a bunch of them. Including the MET, NYC, Tate Modern, London and the Gropius Bau, Berlin being a few. One of my most favourite shows because of its artistic display and where they made fashion a work of art was CAMP: Notes on Fashion at the MET, NYC last summer. Showcasing more than 250 objects dating from the 17th century to the present – that exhibition explored the origins of camp’s exuberant aesthetic which examines how the elements of irony, humour, parody, pastiche, artifice, theatricality and exaggerations are expressed in fashion.”
A COLLECTION OF 300 WORKS
“My collection has over 300 works of contemporary art but mostly focuses on Contemporary Photography in India from the 21st century including works of Subodh Gupta, Atul and Anju Dodiya, Jitish Kallat, Nikhil Chopra, Pushpamala, Zarina Hashmi, Vivaan Sundaram, Shilpa Gupta, Sohrab Hura, Dayanita Singh, Raghu Rai, Krishna Reddy, Seher Shah, T Venkanna, Tanya Goel, Yamini Nayar, Manish Nai, Sarnath Banerjee, Sumakshi Singh and Ayesha Singh amongst many.
‘It was only when I started working that I actually started collecting art from my salary. My first cheque book is very interesting, as all the entries are towards art purchases in 2004’
A SPECIAL PLACE FOR HUSAIN
“MF Husain’s journey is truly inspiring. He stood up for himself, his voice and his art! So much so that in spite of painting Hindu gods and goddesses all his life, he was exiled and died as a Qatari citizen and was buried in London. India has since, not seen an artist as prolific, versatile, innovative and as generous as Husain!”
FAVOURITE TRADITIONAL ART FORM
“Kalighat paintings, particularly by the contemporary artist, Kalam Patua, who has been heavily collected even by the Victoria and Albert Museum, and has books written on his works by Dr Jyotindra Jain. Personally, I have over 40-50 works of his from over the years.”
INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS ON MY RADAR
“I have been attending the Frieze Art Fair in London and New York for the past six years, and discovered many young international artists through these travels whose works I love. Idris Khan, Julie Mehretu and Salman Toor are some of my favourites.” ON MY WISHLIST “Amrita Sher-Gil any day! She is a contemporary for me as she lived a great life and died a tragic death at the age of 28 – leaving behind such a fabulous legacy of works that are rare finds today.”
INTERVIEW: ANKITA RATHOD
PHOTOS: VINAY JAVKAR