A Jamini Roy in the living room

CHENNAI: Management guru Nirmalya Kumar has two homes. One for Jamini Roy and the other for Rabindranath Tagore. "I have about 80 Jamini Roy paintings in my house in London. And my Tagore collection is in Kolkata," says the London Business School professor, whipping out his Blackberry to show a photograph of the Jamini Roy he bought most recently a widow in white still wearing all her jewellery.
"This has all the characteristics of a perfect Jamini Roy.Just a few strokes, classically Indian and making a statement about women's rights, that widows should not be stripped of their dignity," says Kumar, who is in Chennai for the six-day Art Chennai summit.
Art collectors like Kumar form part of the "ecosystem of the art world" people who buy art that they love and display it in their homes and offices. "I buy what I like and can afford," says Pradipta K Mohapatra, chairman of Coaching Foundation India and an avid Rabindranath Tagore admirer.
"No one can take away the joy of hanging a beautiful painting on your wall," says Chennai-based Mohapatra, who also collects the work of artists such as KCS Paniker, KM Adimoolam and SG Vasudev.
With prices going through the roof, many collectors are also turning to photographs. "Today, photography is what painting was in the last century. It is a record of life that was lived and can be moving," says Sanjay Tulsyan, convenor of Art Chennai and MD of Tulsyan NEC. "Anything created today will be part of our history tomorrow, so photography is another form of art," says Tulsyan, whose collection includes paintings of modern and contemporary masters, apart from photographs.
Entrepreneur Sanjay Parthasarathy, who moved back to Chennai last year after spending 25 years in the US, says he collects photographs of Dayanita Singh, Raghu Rai, Nandini Valli and others because they are inspirational and affordable. "I took up photography. I think you appreciate a work of art more when you try your hand at it," he says.
Parthasarathy's interest in art began in the late 80s when his parents started gifting him paintings by KM Adimoolam and Thota Tharrani to congratulate him on achieving certain milestones. "I was in college then and there was not so much commotion about art. They were inexpensive works but they really got me interested in art," he says.
He began collecting in earnest after the year 2000. "I started building my collection about seven years ago. You need confidence and a certain instinct to collect good art," he says.
Saloni Doshi, who at 30 is among the youngest collectors in the country, agrees, saying, "You need to have a keen eye. I only buy what I like, so I tend to buy younger artists like Aditya Pande, Rohini Devasher, Yamini Nayar and Pushpamala N. They're artists who I think will grow with me," she says.
Doshi is currently on the trail of a series of photographs of Amrita Sher-Gil by Vivan Sundaram. "I love Amrita Sher-Gil but cannot afford one, so I want the photographs. The joy is partly in the chase. Once the chase is over, you move onto the next chase," says Doshi.