Art Gallery Mumbai

Private collections of artworks and world renowned art gallery in major cities like Mumbai are scant in India. After independence, the erstwhile princely states were accessed to the Union of India. Courts of the rulers in these states were the galleries of eminent creations. But their accession to India put their private collection under state ownership.

The other private exhibitions of artworks belonged to zaminders. But abolition of zaminderi made them unaffordable for the owners. Consequently some of them migrated to state owned collection while others weaned away or ruined totally.

Soon after independence some efforts were made by the associations of painters and sculptors to preserve and exhibit their works parallel to art galleries. But most of those efforts ended in vain.

At present some industrial houses are the patrons of exhibitions of creative works and solely independent from public ownership. These collections have mostly been out of personal passion of individuals. Some of them raises fund from exhibitions as wells as sale. Some of them are run by global investors. But the last two categories mostly house woks of contemporary painters and sculptors.

Recently sale of private collection of Tina Ambani, at Christies, London was in news. It was an assortment of works by eminent Indians, viz., M F hussain, Tyeb Mehta, S H Raza. The sale was her attempt to raise fund for Harmony Art Foundation. This organization is located in Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City, Mumbai. It supports global endeavors in contemporary creative practices.

The most discussed art gallery is Kiran Nadar Museum of Art at Noida. This has also been Ms. Kiran Nadar’s private collection. Recently she opened this overwhelmingly enormous gallery for public visits. This is the house of modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures. This museum is ornamented with the works of veterans like Raja Ravi Verma, M F Husain, Jogen Chowdhury, Tyeb Mehta, Akbar Padamsee, F N Souza, Arpita Singh and V S Gaitonde and also of contemporaries such as G R Iranna, N S Harsha, Atul Dodiya and Subodh Gupta. This house is a philanthropic non-profit venture of Shiv Nadar Foundation, another concern founded by Shiv Nadar, founder of HCL.

Indian Art Collectors is another group of collectors of contemporary works. It has the goal of sharing items of personal collection among members, physically and virtually via internet; exhibit and sale the items using the physical venues, online gallery and courier services. This art gallery in Mumbai is based in Powai and it is managed without any involvement of the public sector.

The works by old and new generation painters and sculptors are housed in Devna, near Humayun’s Tomb, Delhi. It is open for public viewing. It is a sole private endeavor.

Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) in Hauz Khas, Delhi and Alankritha Art Gallery in Hyderabad are examples of private run art business with private collectors of India and abroad. They are mainly patronized by the MNCs. Yet both of them host exhibitions and sale on their premises

Thus these private collections are enriching Indian talent every day.