Devi Art Foundation
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Indian contemporary art has become a trendy commodity during the recent years and boasts impressive earnings at international auctions. Price of Subodh Gupta's works -currently one of the brightest luminaries on Indian art horizon, dubbed to be the Damien Hirst of Delhi - has increased 52 times between 2000 and 2008, and the top European art galleries, like Serpentine and Saatchi, are devote their exhibition space to art of India. Despite of that, in minds of travelers, Indian metropolis Delhi isn't typically associated with contemporary art at all. Perhaps it's just a question of time and putting into motion a "well-oiled" publicity machine...In the end of 2008, Devi Art Foundation, the first private contemporary art museum in India, opened to visitors. It's sited in Gurgaon suburb of Delhi, about 36 km or 1 hour ride from the city centre. A quiet countryside just 15 years ago, Gurgaon has turned into a modern urban area with high-rising buildings sprouting up like mushrooms after a rain. In spite of seemingly unpretentious location of a small side-lane among office building and construction sites, Devi Art Foundation clearly manifests its contents in its outward shape already. Roughly robust in its intentional weatherworn authenticity, it is undeniably one of the brightest examples of the modern Delhi architecture. Red bricks and steel gives an impression of having endured the toughest conditions imaginable. One of its walls has been put together from handmade bricks of 15 different shapes, giving a feel that it might easily start to sway. Expositions occupy both wings of the building, spreading over several floors. Moreover, the designer of the project is not a world-renowned celebrity, but the local architect Aniket Bhagwat.
The project was initiated by Anupam Poddar, the offspring of a respectable Indian family of entrepreneurs and art collectors, passionate about collecting contemporary Indian art for over a decade already. Beyond India, his name perhaps is more familiar in the context one of the most exclusive lodging of the country - Devi Garh. The hotel is located in a restored rajah fort palace of the 18th century, just outside the city of Udaipur. Due to its unique concept, the hotel caused a considerable commotion in the 90s. Its façade has been renovated to its initial splendor while an ascetic minimalism prevails inside, serving as a subtle background for contemporary artworks. Poddar family comes from Rajasthan city, their wealth being based upon paper industry. Poddars boast an extensive private collection of over 1500 pieces of Indian folk art, including textiles. Anupam Poddar's mother and a co-owner of the new Devi Art Foundation is a recognized modern art collector of her generation. Poddar himself, like many offsprings of wealthy Indian families, has spent several years abroad, studying entrepreneurship in London, before returning to Delhi. „I became conscious of the existence of a whole new generation of artists with whom I had things in common. They had traveled. They had access to information. What interested me was this international India in contact with the rest of the world," says Poddar in an interview with Daily Telegraph in India. Among other objectives, the Foundation has been developed to facilitate a viewership of the most creative expressions existing in India and the entire region, giving a profound insight into the current art tendencies there. For example, an exhibition on view till June presents a contemporary Pakistani art. Traditionally, expositions are available for a substantial period of time (at least 4 months) allowing enough time for visiting. There is no entrance fee and the Foundation offers Educational and Outreach programs as well, to encourage students' interest in contemporary art. A small Devi Art Foundation bookstall offers a special city art map that shows locations of several tens of art galleries, scattered in the city.
In the middle of January 2010, yet another private art institution opened its door in Delhi - Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Kiran Nadar, the owner and wife of a well-known IT business magnate of India, is an influential contemporary art collector as well.
A new museum of modern art is planned to be opened in Calcutta in 2013, designed by starchitect team of Herzog & de Meuron. It is already pronounced to be the first project taken up by a world-famous architect in India since Chandigarh, designed by Le Corbusier more than half a century ago, located 250 km from Delhi.
Sirpus House, Sector 44, Gurgaon
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